Policy evaluation methods in tax research – new evidence and interpretations

In this article I briefly describe the main questions related to the design of a tax system and introduce policy evaluation methods that can help us to learn about the effects of different taxes on different outcomes. Then I consider what various responses mean in terms of agents’ behavior and give my view of aspects that are important when tax systems are reformed. Finally I present the results of my PhD dissertation (Harju (2013)) and the contributions of the articles therein one by one, the aim being to offer examples of empirical tax research applying policy evaluation methods.