International Tax Policy

Explains why perfecting, rather than curbing, interstate competition would make international taxation both more efficient and more just.

Offers a theoretical framework for current international tax policy discussions. Criticising past and present co-operative initiatives, this book embraces structured competition as promoting efficiency and global justice. International tax scholars, policymakers, teachers and students are provided with a coherent vocabulary for the pressing policy issues at stake.Bringing a unique voice to international taxation, this book argues against the conventional support of multilateral co-operation in favour of structured competition as a way to promote both justice and efficiency in international tax policy. Tsilly Dagan analyzes international taxation as a decentralized market, where governments have increasingly become strategic actors. While many of the challenges of the current international tax regime derive from this decentralized competitive structure, Dagan argues that curtailing competition through centralization is not necessarily the answer. Conversely, competition - if properly calibrated and notwithstanding its dubious reputation - is conducive, rather than detrimental, to both efficiency and global justice. International Tax Policy begins with the basic normative goals of income taxation, explaining how competition transforms them and analyzing the strategic game states play on the bilateral and multilateral level. It then considers the costs and benefits of co-operation and competition in terms of efficiency and justice.