My research focuses on how tax systems can be designed to raise revenue efficiently while supporting equity, compliance, and long-run fiscal sustainability. I am particularly interested in the interaction between tax policy, enforcement, and household behaviour, and how these mechanisms shape fiscal capacity in both advanced and developing economies.
A central theme of my work is the role of policy design and implementation, rather than statutory rules alone. Across projects, I study how behavioural responses, administrative constraints, and institutional features influence the effectiveness of taxation as a policy tool. While my research is grounded in formal economic modelling, it is motivated by applied policy questions and aims to inform evidence-based decision-making.
Working Paper:
Abstract: This paper examines a life-cycle model incorporating entrepreneurial activity to assess tax policies that achieve specific revenue targets while minimizing welfare losses. We evaluate a range of tax instruments, including federal income tax, capital income tax, and consumption tax, to determine their relative efficiency in revenue generation and economic impact. Our findings indicate that increasing tax revenue through a combination of higher rates and progressivity in consumption taxation is particularly welfare-enhancing. Moreover, the optimal degree of consumption tax progressivity remains robust across different revenue targets, suggesting its effectiveness as a policy tool. The inclusion of entrepreneurship in the model plays a crucial role in shaping wealth distribution, underscoring its significance in tax policy design. These insights offer valuable guidance for policymakers seeking to optimize tax structures that balance fiscal sustainability with economic efficiency and equity.
--with Cagri Kumru and Meng Li
Abstract: This paper studies how capital tax design affects annuity demand in an economy with heterogeneous individuals, occupational choice, and bequest motives. A simple theoretical framework shows that capital taxes influence annuity purchases through opposing substitution, income, bequest, and portfolio composition channels, rendering the net effect ambiguous. To quantify these forces, we develop a life-cycle model with entrepreneurial activity, borrowing constraints, and intergenerational wealth transmission. The model replicates the observed concentration of wealth among entrepreneurs and the low prevalence of annuity ownership. We find that moderate increases in capital taxation can substantially raise annuitisation, increasing ownership from roughly 5% in the data to over 15%, while also generating non-trivial distributional and welfare effects.
Abstract: This paper estimates the effective personal income tax schedule in Bangladesh using administrative tax return data. It combines nonparametric evidence with multiple parametric representations of average and marginal tax rates to document how income taxation operates in practice in a developing economy with limited fiscal capacity. The findings reveal modest effective progressivity: tax rates remain low across most of the income distribution, rising meaningfully only at the very top. In contrast, marginal rates fall well below statutory benchmarks. Consequently, the income tax offers a constrained scope for redistribution and revenue mobilisation, limiting fiscal policy’s role in addressing economic shocks under heightened external uncertainty. The study provides empirically grounded parameters for quantitative macroeconomic models and underscores the need to differentiate between statutory design and implementation when evaluating fiscal capacity in developing economies.
Current Research:
Auditing Decisions and Income Tax Evasion
--with Jiu Lian and Shahar Rotberg
Wealth Taxation in Australia
--with Cagri Kumru
Raising Tax Revenue at Minimal Welfare Cost:
RSE Macroeconomic Seminar, ANU (03 July 2024).
Tax and Transfer Policy Institute, ANU (05 July 2024).
38th Annual Australian PhD Conference in Economics and Business 2024 (20 Nov 2024). [Best Presentation Award]
Capital Tax Design and Annuity Demand:
RSE 6th Annual PhD Workshop, ANU (27 Nov 2024).
CES China Annual Conference 2025 (07 July 2025)
33rd Colloquium on Pensions and Retirement Research (25 Nov 2025)
Effective Income Taxation and Fiscal Capacity in Developing Economies: Evidence from Bangladesh:
Staff Seminar, RAPID, Bangladesh (19 Jun 2025).
Tax Expenditure Reporting in Developing Countries: A Case Study on Bangladesh:
National Board of Revenue, Bangladesh (30 Nov 2021).
Auditing Decisions and Income Tax Evasion:
RSE Macroeconomic Seminar, ANU (17 Dec 2025).
Publication:
Khan, M. O. F., Chowdhury, K., Bari, M. A., Chowdhury, M. M. I., & Rahman, M. M. (2023). Tax Expenditure Reporting in Developing Countries: A Case Study on Bangladesh. Journal of Tax Administration, 8(1), 104-131.
Research Collaboration with Professor Hans Fehr, University of Würzburg, Germany (Oct - Dec 2023).
Research Collaboration at City University of Macau (July 2025).
PhD Internship at RAPID, Bangladesh (Jun-Aug, 2025)