International Tax Policy: Between Competition and Cooperation

Description

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.

Tsilly Dagan is a Professor of Law at Bar-Ilan University, Israel. She is a leading tax theorist who has published extensively on a broad range of tax-related issues and distinctively combines tools from game theory and political philosophy to challenge the field's conventional wisdoms.

'This creative and imaginative work points in exactly the right directions for the advancement of scholarly thinking about international tax policy. Dagan rightly skewers both obsolete neutrality concepts and naive hopes for high-minded global cooperation, in favor of a searching and realistic look at multilateral issues.' Daniel Shaviro, Wayne Perry Professor of Taxation, New York University Law School 'Tsilly Dagan's outstanding book is a major contribution to a crucial field of study. It offers an innovative view on where the international tax regime in the G20 and beyond should be heading in the years to come.' Eduardo Baistrocchi, London School of Economics and Political Science 'This book is the most important re-evaluation of the international tax regime in the post financial crisis era. Professor Dagan's incisive analysis shows the drawbacks of the post-crisis reforms in international taxation that were driven by the G20 and the OECD from a distributive justice perspective. It should be required reading for tax policy makers all over the world and especially within OECD and G20 countries.' Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, Irwin I. Cohn Professor of Law, University of Michigan