Peasants versus City-Dellers Taxation and the Burden of Economic Development [Paperback]

In this book Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz and co-author Raaj Sah address one of development's major issues. Most of today's countries face town versus country tensions of increasing severity, including such issues as who should pay how much in taxes, who should get how much in subsidies, and what forms the taxes and subsidies should take. This volume analyses these tensions and issues, taking into account the great diversity of institutions and economic environments observed in different developing countries.

I. An Introduction to Issues and Methodology
1. Introduction
2. The Objectives and Instruments of Government Policy and the Structure of the Economy in LDCs
3. An Approach to Applied Welfare Economics
II. Inter-Sectoral Taxation Policies
4. Rural--Urban Prices in Open Economies
5. The Price Scissors in Open Economies
6. The Price Scissors in Closed and Partially Closed Socialist Economies
7. The Soviet Industrialization Debate and Collectivization
III. The Rural Sector
8. Income Distribution and Alternative Organizational Forms within the Rural Sector
9. Taxes and Subsidies on Different Goods in the Rural Sector
IV. The Urban Sector
10. The Impact of Urban Wag and Employment Determination on Taxation Policies
11. Some Aspects of the Wage-Productivity Hypothesis that are Relevant for Taxation Analysis
12. Taxes and Subsidies on Different Goods in the Urban Sector
13. Tax Policy in the Presence of Migration and Urban Unemployment
14. Taxation in the Urban Sector: Some Aspects of the Underlying Model
15. The Social Cost of Labour
16. Concluding Remarks

Raaj K. Sah is Professor of Public Policy, University of Chicago. Joseph E. Stiglitz is Professor of Finance and Economics, Columbia University. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2001.