Abstract

Commercial banks UBS and HSBC embroiled in scandals that in some cases exposed lawmakers themselves as tax evaders… multinationals Google and Apple using the Double Irish and other tax avoidance strategies… governments granting fiscal sweetheart deals behind closed doors (as in Luxembourg) the stream of news items documenting the crisis of global tax governance is not about to dry up. Much work has been done in individual disciplines on the phenomenon of tax competition that lies at the heart of this crisis. Yet, the combination of issues of democratic legitimacy, social justice, economic efficiency, and national sovereignty that tax competition raises clearly requires an interdisciplinary analysis. This book offers a rare example of this kind of work, bringing together experts from political science, philosophy, law, and economics whose contributions combine empirical analysis with normative and institutional proposals. It makes an important contribution to reforming international taxation.
Thomas Rixen is Professor of Political Science at the University of Bamberg. His research interests are in international and comparative political economy. He is the author of The Political Economy of International Tax Governance (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008) and has published in European Journal of International Relations, Review of International Political Economy and Journal of Common Market Studies, among other journals.


Peter Dietsch is Associate Professor at the Université de Montréal. His research interests lie at the intersection of political philosophy and economics, with a particular focus on questions of income distribution as well as on the normative dimensions of economic policies. His book Catching Capital – The Ethics of Tax Competition was published with Oxford University Press in 2015.
"High-profile scandals and increasing public debt after the financial crisis have put issues of international taxation high on the political agenda. This book offers a rare combination of empirical analysis with normative and institutional proposals for global tax governance. Essential reading for anyone interested in an analysis beyond media headlines.'...Anyone concerned with international taxation will benefit from this excellent collection of essays about the nature and possible resolutions of the conflicts within and between states about fiscal sovereignty, tax competition, and domestic and international equity that underlie the international tax discussion."
Daniele Caramani, University of Zurich