Katherine Baer
Member of the IIPF Board of Management, 2021–2024
Status of CV: for elections, June 2021Skills
Public Finance, Tax Policy, Revenue Administration,
Building Capacity, Managing People
Work History
2012-07 – Current:
Division Chief/Assistant Director
International Monetary Fund, Washington, D.C.
Lead team of 40 experts in providing technical assistance in revenue administration to more than 80 IMF member countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.
2010-08 – 2012-07: Financial Economist
U.S. Treasury Department, Washington, DC
As part of a team of tax policy analysts in the Treasury’s Office of Tax Policy, performed analysis of macroeconomic effects of change in the design of the US Corporate Income Tax, estimated revenue yields of tax compliance measures for the US budget, supervised calculation of tax gap estimates, and provided advice regarding implications of introducing a federal Value- Added-Tax in the US.
2008-09 – 2010-07: Assistant Commissioner
Mexican Tax Service, Mexico City, Mexico
Designed and helped lead a comprehensive customs reform, oversaw the calculation of tax gap studies, supervised the design and implementation of risk models to guide tax and customs operations, and performed analysis to determine the main reasons for Mexico’s low tax/GDP ratio and actions to address this.
2003-07 – 2008-08: Deputy Division Chief
International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC
Helped manage a group of 20 experts to provide technical assistance to countries in Asia, Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean. Main focus was on providing assistance to Southern and Eastern European countries to modernize their tax and customs administrations in preparation for EU accession.
2001-11 – 2003-05 Senior Economist
International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC
Member of the Tax Administration Division in the Fiscal Affairs Department, responsible for providing advice to countries in Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean in designing and implementing tax and customs administration reform programs. Lead the design of the tax administration reform program during Argentina’s economic crisis, 2001-2002.
1995-05 – 2001-05 Technical Assistance Officer
International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC
Designed and implemented tax and customs administration reform programs focused on the countries of the Former Soviet Union. Provided advice to the Russian tax authorities during the 1998 financial crisis and to the S. Korean authorities during the 1997 financial crisis.
1985-08 – 1989-07 Economist
World Bank, Washington, DC
Designed and implemented public sector reform strategies for countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Contributed to policies that lead to macroeconomic stabilization in Bolivia and helped design and implement the VAT in Venezuela.
Education
1989-08 – 1994-05 Ph.D.: Economics, Public Finance
Cornell University – Ithaca, New York
1983-08 – 1985-06 Master of Arts: International Economics, Development Economics
Harvard University – Cambridge, Mass.
1979-08 – 1983-05 Bachelor of Arts: History, Economics, German Literature
Cornell University – Ithaca, New York
Languages
English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Portuguese
Selected Publications
Baer, Katherine, and Cedric Andrew, Combating VAT Refund Fraud, IMF Working Paper (forthcoming, 2021)
Baer, Katherine, Sanjeev Gupta, Mario Mansour, and Saliendra Pattanayak, Building Fiscal Institutions in Fragile Sates: A Two-Step Approach, in Macroeconomic Policy in Fragile States, Ralph Chami, Raphael Espinoza and Peter Montiel, eds., 2021
Baer, Katherine and IMF staff team, Building Fiscal Capacity in Fragile States, June 14, 2017. https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/Policy-Papers/Issues/2017/06/14/pp041817building-fiscal-capacity-in-fragile-state
Baer, Katherine O., What International Experience can tell us about the Potential Challenges of Administering a U.S. VAT, National Tax Journal, June 2013, 66 (2), 447–478 https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.17310/ntj.2013.2.07
Baer, Katherine and Eric Leborgne, Tax Amnesties: Theory, Trends, and Some Alternatives, July 29, 2008. https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/IMF-Special-Issues/Issues/2016/12/31/Tax-Amnesties-Theory-Trends-and-Some-Alternatives-21865
Baer, Katherine, La administración tributaria en América Latina: algunos tendencias y desafíos, Libros de la CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe, 2006, https://repositorio.cepal.org/handle/11362/2478
Baer, Katherine and IMF staff team, Improving Large Taxpayers’ Compliance: Review of Country Experience, Occasional Paper 215, 2002. https://www.imf.org/en/publications/occasional-papers/issues/2016/12/30/improving-large-taxpayers-compliance-a-review-of-country-experience-15674
Baer, Katherine and Carlos Silvani, Designing a Tax Administration Reform Strategy: Experiences and Guidelines, IMF Working Paper 97/30, March 1997. https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2016/12/30/Designing-a-Tax-Administration-Reform-Strategy-Experiences-and-Guidelines-2134
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