01788cas a2200241 a 4500 AALejournalIMF007583 230101c9999 xx r poo 0 0eng d 5.00 USD 9781451848403 1018-5941 BD-DhAAL BD-DhAAL International Monetary Fund. Spend Now, Pay Later? : Tax Smoothing and Fiscal Sustainability in South Asia. Washington, D.C. : International Monetary Fund, 1999. 1 online resource (34 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 This paper tests a version of Barro's tax-smoothing model, which assumes intertemporal optimization by a government seeking to minimize the distortionary costs of taxation, using Pakistan and Sri Lankan data for 1956-95 and 1964-97, respectively. The empirical results indicate that Pakistan's fiscal behavior is consistent with tax smoothing, but not Sri Lanka's. Moreover, fiscal behavior in both countries was dominated by a stagnation of revenues, large tax-tilting-induced deficits, and the consequent accumulation of excessive public liabilities. Analysis of the time-series characteristics of tax-tilting behavior indicates that for both countries the stock of public liabilities is unsustainable under unchanged fiscal policies. Mode of access: Internet IMF Working Papers; Working Paper ; No. 1999/063 Full text available on IMF http://elibrary.imf.org/view/journals/001/1999/063/001.1999.issue-063-en.xml IMF e-Library