Public Finance Program: Master's Programs (International Programs) -- Prospective Students

Master's Programs (International Programs)

Public Finance Program

The Public Finance Program is operated under the full support of the World Bank (WB) as part of the Joint Japan/World Bank Graduate Scholarship Program(JJ/WBGSP), and the World Customs Organization (WCO) as part of the Japan-WCO Human Resource Development Programme. The major objective of the Public Finance Program is to provide students with the conceptual understanding and technical competence to become leaders in taxation and customs. The program is comprised of two segments: an economics-oriented academic segment common to customs and tax scholars, and a practicum segment which is divided into tax and customs depending on the scholar's stream. The practicum is provided by Japan's National Tax College (NTC) for the Tax course students, and by Japan's Customs Training Institute (CTI) and Customs and Tariff Bureau of the Ministry of Finance for the Customs course students. Please download "Application Guidebook" for Customs Course and for Tax Course.

Target Group

Government officials from developing countries worldwide who are currently working in tax or customs administration or equivalent departments, with 2-3 years of work experience in the relevant field.

Program Design

The academic segment of the program provides rigorous economics-oriented training aimed at developing an understanding of the theoretical, empirical, and institutional aspects of tax and customs policy implementation and administration in the context of developing countries' economic and social development. A practicum at the National Tax Administration or the Customs Training Institute provides an opportunity for students to enhance their learning with hands-on experience in a tax/customs-related work environment and to integrate this experience with their formal education.

Public Finance Program Curriculum 2011/2012 (as of October 2011)

https://gast.grips.ac.jp/syllabus/
Category	Course Name	Instructor
I Required Courses	International Taxation of Japan	Komamiya
	Practicum at the National Tax Agency
	Customs Law	Nagase
	Practicum in Customs Administration I	Nagase
	Practicum in Customs Administration II	Nagase
	Practicum in Customs Administration III	Tanaka Toru, Baba
	Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement at Border	TBA
	Microeconomics I	Yoshida
	Theory of Public Finance	Hatta
	Workshop in Public Finance	Kurosawa
	Public Finance and Fiscal Policy	Matsuda
II Highly Recommended Elective Courses	Macroeconomics I	Deguchi
	Microeconomics II	Yoshida
	Government and Market	Hatanaka
	Macroeconomics II	Deguchi
	Introduction to Applied Econometrics	Wie
	Local Public Finance	Kook
	Economic and Fiscal Reform in Japan	Ota
	International Trade	TBA
	Development Economics	Cooray
	Human Resources Management	Yamazaki
III Other Elective Courses	Monetary Economics (Money and Banking)	Pfau
	Finance and Economic Growth	Jeong
	Applied Time Series Analysis for Macroeconomics	TBA
	Poverty Alleviation	Suzuki Aya
	Trade and Industrial Development	Sonobe
	Game Theory	Yasuda
	Mathematics for Economic Analysis	Yoshida
	Public Economics	TBA
	Labor Economics	Kurosawa
	Economics of Education and Labor	Tanaka Ryuichi
	Economics of Law	Hatanaka
	Urban Economics	Okamoto Ryosuke
	Transportation Economics	Murakami
	Urban Development and Real Estate Policy	Kanemoto
	International Finance	Hsu
	Empirics of Macroeconomic Policies and International Finance	Koeda
	Environmental Economics	Munro
	Resource and Energy Economics	Tanaka Makoto
	Japanese Economy	Okita
	Japanese Financial System	Rhodes
	Econometrics/ Quantitative Methods	Arai
	Time Series Analysis	Ikeda
	Economic Modeling for Policy Simulations	Hosoe
	Economic Development of Japan	Ohno Kenichi
For qualified MA students only	Advanced Microeconomics I	Yasuda
	Advanced Microeconomics II	Yasuda
	Advanced Econometrics I	Arai
	Advanced Econometrics II	Leon-Gonzalez
	Economic Analysis of Urban and Regional Policy	Kanemoto
	State Building and Development	Sonobe, Shiraishi
	International Political Economy of Money and Finance	Chey
	Quantitative Social Systems Analysis	Oyama, Tsuchiya
	Accounting and Financial Management I	Lee
	Development Assistance by International Organizations	TBA
	Foreign Direct Investment	Yoshitake
	Seminar in Industry and Trade Policy	Tanaka Masami
	Global Governance: Leadership and Negotiation	Komatsu
	Fiscal and Monetary Policies in Japan	Ishida
	Public Expenditure Management	Tanaka Hideaki
	Policy Design and Implementation in Developing Countries	Ohno Kenichi, Ohno Izumi, Shimamura
	Local Government System	Nakamura
	Local Government Finance	Hatakeyama
	Selected Topics in Policy Studies I - IV
	Courses not listed in this table
X Others	courses offered by the Center for Japanese Language Learning
X Others	courses offered by the Academic Writing Center

Career Destinations

Graduates from this program are expected to return to their host organizations to become fiscal leaders in taxation and customs. In fact, more than 95% of the graduates are still working at the tax and customs bureau in their home countries. To give a few examples of their current positions:

<Tax Course>
• Deputy Director, State Tax Bureau of Shantou Bonded Zone, Guangdong Province (China, 2005)
• Executive Director, National Statistics Office (Georgia, 2003)
• Directorate General of Taxes, Ministry of Finance (Indonesia, 2001)
• Principal Assistant Director, Inland Revenue Board Malaysia (Malaysia, 2001)
• Assistant Director, Zambia Revenue Authority (Zambia, 1999)

<Customs Course>
• Deputy Commissioner, Ministry of Finance (Bhutan, 2006)
• Assistant to Director General, Customs and Excise Department (Cambodia, 2003)
• Deputy Commissioner, Ministry of Finance (India, 2008)
• Director, Intelligence and Special Operations, Maldives Customs Service (Maldives, 2004)
• Deputy Director, Pakistan Customs, Central Board of Revenue (Pakistan, 2006)

Origin and Affiliation of Students

Country	Typical Affiliation
<Tax Course>
Bhutan	Ministry of Finance
China	State Administration of Taxation
Malaysia	Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia
Sierra Leone	National Revenue Authority
Tanzania	Tanzania Revenue Authority
<Customs Course>
Bangladesh	Customs, Excise and VAT Commission
China	Nanjing Customs District
Fiji	Fiji Islands Revenue and Customs Authority
India	Ministry of Finance
Mauritius	Mauritius Revenue Authority
Mexico	General Administration of Customs
Moldova	Cahul Customs Service
Mongolia	Customs General Administration
Sierra Leone	National Revenue Authority
Thailand	Thai Customs Department
Uganda	Uganda Revenue Authority
Yemen	Yemen Customs Authority

Recent Theses

"The Effect of Foreign Aid in the Economic Growth in Developing Countries: A Case Study for Bangladesh."
"On the Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment to China: Does Tax Matter."
"The Effect of Intellectual Property Rights on Economic Growth in Developing Countries."
"Customs Issues in Trade Facilitation in India: Case Study of Problems being Faced by Japanese Companies."
"What will be the Impact of Unification of Enterprise Tax Rate for China, in the Next Five Years and after That."
"Fiscal Decentralization and Strengthening the Tax Revenues in Pakistan: How Fiscal Decentralization can Strengthen Local Tax Revenue in Pakistan?"
"Estimating the Impact of Inflation on Tax Revenue in Kenya"
"An Evaluation of Needs and Costs of Selected Trade Facilitaion Measures in Pakistan: Implications for the WTO Negotiations on Trade Facilitation."
"Foreign Aid and Economic Growth in Zambia: Has Aid been Effective? "
"Taxes on commodities and Excess Burden."

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