This study analyzes the dynamics of tax revenues and tax rates for a large set of countries for at least last 50 years. We establish several stylized facts. First, corporate and individual income tax rates have been steadily declining, while value added tax(VAT) has been increasing for the most of the countries. The VAT was introduced in many countries in late 70s and early 80s. Second, the total revenue as % of GDP as well as the share non-tax revenues in total revenue have not changed much. Third, while the share of individual income tax has remained constant, the share of corporate tax has increased in spite of falling tax rates. Fourth, the sale tax revenue has become the most import source of revenue. The recent theoretical explanations cannot account for the observed pattern. We proposed an alternative by incorporating capital mobility into a model of the optimal capital taxation with heterogeneous agents a la Conesa et al (2009).

Research Seminar with Elena Loutskina took place on July 13.

Open lecture with Yuri Tserlukevich took place on July 1.

Open lecture with Aleksandr Vashchilko took place on June 24.

Open lecture with Pavel Daneyko organized in cooperation with the Flying University and the Center for European Transformation took place on May 27.

On November 27, center of economic research BEROC organized an open lecture " Exchange Rate, Imports of Intermediate and Capital Goods and GDP Growth in Belarus" delivered by Aleh Mazol.