The School of Economics is pleased to invite you to the next guest lecture within the Contemporary Economic Issues series, which takes place on Monday the 11th of March, from 6pm, in lecture theatre Arts 01.02. Our speaker this time is Dr. Mihai Mutascu, of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, West University of Timisoara. He will discuss:

 New determinants of collected tax revenues

 Tax revenue represents the most important financing source for government. The state collects and allocates taxes in order to secure ‘the constitutional rights’ and, as Musgrave (1959) notes, to fulfil three main functions in the economy: allocation, distribution, and economic stabilisation. The literature in the field identifies a multitude of classical determinants for tax revenue, such as: socio-demographic characteristics, political and social attitudes, fiscal parameters, and contextual determinants.  Yet, economic reality allows us to explore a set of further determinants for tax revenue, which might have been treated as exotic or taboo by many researchers to date – i.e. literacy, religion, climate.

The research underlying this presentation draws on a sample of 123 countries, during the period 1996-2010. The results indicate a major influence of the level of literacy on collected tax revenue, with a quadratic relationship between the two. Tax revenue tends to be also higher in countries with a dominant Buddhist religion. Finally, we find that the cool, polar or boreal climates (low temperatures) can accelerate tax revenue collection, after controlling for economic growth.

 

Dr. Mihai Mutascu is associate professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, West University of Timisoara, and associate researcher at LEO (Laboratoire d’Economie d’Orléans). His main research interests relate to taxation, public economics and public choice.  Mihai has published various articles in this area, and he is currently the editor-in-chief of the ‘Economic Research Guardian’.

 

 Refreshments will be provided at the end of the lecture, to which members of the public are warmly welcomed to attend at nil charge.