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Fiscal policy: taxation

Published on November 30, 2015   16 min

Other Talks in the Series: Macroeconomics

Please wait while the transcript is being prepared...
0:00
Hi, My name is Sanjay Raja and I'm an economist based in London specializing in macro and micro policy. So today's talk is going to focus on taxation in terms of fiscal policy.
0:12
Tax, as we know, is vital for a government's finances. It's what a government uses to finance their expenditure. Think things like infrastructure, education, health, just to name a few. It's also very important to us. Why? Because tax influences every part of our lives. It affects things from our disposable income, prices we pay for our groceries, utilities, you name it, it affects practically everything we do.
0:42
So without further ado, a look at what we're going to cover in today's presentation. Well, of course, first we want to cover and understand what influences government receipts, what influences tax, and how this links to today's budget. Then we want to step back and really take a look at the broader context of tax within the UK. I think this is really important to understand not just tax in a single country setting, but in terms of a global perspective. And lastly, we'll look at optimizing tax policy for industries. And this is something we as economists in the professional world do a lot of. It's super interesting and we'll come back to this in just a few minutes.
1:23
So before we get into the crux of today's talk, I'd like to start with an open-ended question. Can you think of any tax that affects your day-to-day life? I'm just hoping to get your mind thinking in terms of tax and how tax affects your lives. Now, think about what you do in terms of job that you work in or will work in, to everyday spending. So just keep those things in mind, so hold those answers in your head, and let's come back to it in just a quick second.