Labor Taxation in the Western Balkans
17 September 2024 3:00 pm CEST
with Indhira Santos from the World Bank
In cooperation with:
Venue
Wiener Institut für Internationale Wirtschaftsvergleiche, Seminarraum im Souterrain, Rahlgasse 3, 1060 Wien
Description
During this event, we will present and discuss the special topic of the Western Balkans Labour Market Brief 2022, which examines labour taxation in the region using a newly compiled dataset created specifically for this analysis. The presentation will outline the nominal and effective labor tax rates in the region, document the effective tax rates across different income levels, and compare them with those in Austria, Bulgaria, and Hungary, which serve as EU comparator countries for the region. It will also trace the evolution of labor taxes in the Western Balkans since 2010, highlighting key policy reforms during this period. The presentation will conclude with policy recommendations aimed at addressing inherent issues in the region's labor tax systems, such as regressivity.
This event is co-organised with the World Bank.
Speakers
Indhira Santos is Lead Economist for Human Development in the Europe and Central Region at the World Bank. She is a specialist in labor markets, skills, and social protection. In her career at the World Bank, she has been the Global Lead for Labor & Skills and has worked on the Africa, Europe and Central Asia and South Asia Regions since joining as a Young Professional in 2009. She was also a primary author of the 2019 World Development Report “The Changing Nature of Work” and the 2016 World Development Report “Digital Dividends”. Prior to joining the World Bank, she was a Research Fellow at Bruegel, a European policy think tank in Brussels, and also worked for the Economic Research Center of the PUCMM University and the Ministry of Finance (Dominican Republic). Indhira has also published in peer-reviewed journals. She was a Fulbright scholar at Harvard University, where she obtained her PhD in Public Policy and a Masters in Public Administration in International Development.
Branimir Jovanovic is Economist at wiiw and country expert for North Macedonia and Serbia. His current research interests lie mainly around economic inequality, poverty, fiscal policy, taxation, social policies, labour rights, as well as financial crises and post-crises recoveries. Previously, he has done research on monetary policy, credit activity, exchange rates, trade, FDI, remittances, current account sustainability, forecasting, house prices. He has been adviser to the Minister of Finance of North Macedonia between 2017 and 2019 and researcher at the Central Bank of North Macedonia between 2007 and 2015. He has a PhD from University of Rome “Tor Vergata”.
Moderator
Mario Holzner is Executive Director at the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw).
The presentation will be in English.
The presentation will be followed by an open discussion with the participants.