02125cas a2200265 a 4500 AALejournalIMF004786 230101c9999 xx r poo 0 0eng d 5.00 USD 9781451866247 1018-5941 BD-DhAAL BD-DhAAL Mishra, Prachi. Policies, Enforcement, and Customs Evasion : Evidence from India / Prachi Mishra, Arvind Subramanian, Petia Topalova. Washington, D.C. : International Monetary Fund, 2007. 1 online resource (39 pages) IMF Working Papers <strong>Off-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required <strong>On-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required Electronic access restricted to authorized BRAC University faculty, staff and students We examine the effect of tariff policies on evasion of customs duties, in the context of the trade reform in India of the 1990s. We exploit the variation in tariff rates across time and products to identify the evasion elasticity, namely, the effect of tariffs on evasion, and relate this elasticity to factors related to customs enforcement or the quality of customs institutions. We find a positive and robust effect of tariffs on import tax evasion. We then show that the evasion elasticity is influenced by certain product characteristics that determine how easy it is to detect evasion (with more differentiated products exhibiting a higher evasion elasticity). This evasion elasticity, which we broadly interpret as reflecting the quality of customs administration, has not improved over the 1990s. Finally, our results suggest that the effectiveness of customs in addressing evasion may be better in India than China, although China appears to be catching up over time. Mode of access: Internet Subramanian, Arvind. Topalova, Petia. IMF Working Papers; Working Paper ; No. 2007/060 Full text available on IMF http://elibrary.imf.org/view/journals/001/2007/060/001.2007.issue-060-en.xml IMF e-Library