The amount collected in taxation, the items which have been taxed, and the classes of people on whom the tax burden has fallen, have all changed greatly in the period from the Restoration to the present. This book considers how and why these changes took place, and some of the consequences which have flowed from them.

This book analyzes the revenues from the creation of currency by a central government. Adopting an institutional perspective, it develops a general theory of seigniorage by identifying three monetary regimes in economic history and the history of economic thought: a commodity currency, a fiat currency and a credit currency regime. As such it provides a modern analytical framework to analyze the nature of revenues from the creation of currency and their optimal height, whether currency is issued by means of minting coins, by printing and spending paper notes, by crediting private entities, or combinations thereof. The results of this analysis stretch beyond the immediate topic. The book establishes a relationship between the theory of seigniorage and government debt, the theory of the interest rate, the optimal rate of inflation, or the effectiveness and inflationary limits of outright monetary transactions.

This ninth volume is part of a series which serves as a research annual for the publication of academic tax research.

This book provides an insightful, and in-depth analysis of the fiscal reform process experienced in Spain over the last 30 years. The authors initially focus on the political economy of tax reform in Spain, and the fact that political and economic bodies were able to form alliances at key junctures during the process in order to push reforms forward. A comprehensive analysis of the main instruments of the Spanish tax system, including the introduction of VAT upon Spain's accession to the European Common Market, is presented. The rapid fiscal decentralization process that led Spain from being one of the most centralized countries in the world to being one of the least centralized is also discussed, as is the modernization of the Spanish tax administration system. Written by a select group of scholars with deep knowledge of the Spanish fiscal system, this book will be of great interest to students, tax policymakers and researchers all over the world and especially in Latin America.

Restructuring the balance sheets of Western governments, banks and households is an important issue in the recovery after the recent crisis. Chorafas' latest book focuses on sovereign debt, sovereign risk and the developing economic and financial business climate and explains why the year of the big crisis may fall in the middle of this decade.

In 1989 the federal government spent $1197 billion, a mind-boggling sum that is almost impossible to visualize. Since there were 248. 8 million people living in the United States in that year, the government spent an average of $4811 for every man, woman, and child in the nation. For a hypothetical family of four, federal spending in 1989 amounted to an average of$19,244. To put this sum in perspective, the money income of an American family averaged $35,270 in the same year. To finance spending $1197 billion, the government collected taxes from American citizens and residents in an amount of $1047 billion. Because of a shortfall between what it spent and what it took in taxes, the government had to borrow $150 billion, partly from individuals, but mostly from banks, insurance companies, and foreigners. How, where, and on whom did the federal government spend all this money? Since federal spending in 1989 totaled 23 cents in comparison to every dollar spent for the buying of goods and services, finding an answer to this question is not a trivial matter. Spending by Washington reaches into every nook and cranny of the economy, touching the lives and fortunes of almost everyone in the nation. Thus, answers to these questions are of more than academic interest.

International taxation is a vital issue for a growing number of business and individuals across the world. The need to understand how the international system of taxation works is therefore a subject of importance to many people. The International Taxation System provides this understanding by bringing together experts from the most important fields in the subject who have each authored chapters especially for this book. They each provide brief, structured and easy to understand explanations of the key concepts edited together into one volume to provide a unique, very readable, guide to the field.
While this text is aimed at masters or advanced undergraduate level students, it will also be of interest to those requiring a professional understanding of the topic. Each chapter introduces a different aspect of the international taxation system, explains the important issues to be understood in each case and provides suggestions for discussion and further reading.

This authoritative collection assesses the scope and limitations of public choice theory for informing the choices of policy-makers. Theoretical contributions are combined with case studies of specific areas of economic policy, including the growth of budget deficits under Reagan and Thatcher; European economic integration; macroeconomic management; science and technology and housing policy.

The authors explore cases in the 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries in which international exchanges of ideas about taxation have significantly influenced the development of national fiscal systems. Today many intense transfers of ideas about taxation take place through international organisations such as the IMF and the Worldbank. These transfers build on a long historical continuity of exchanges of fiscal ideas. International exchanges of ideas were already part of the development of modern fiscal systems in Europe in the 18th. Exchanges were also crucial in the colonial empires of the nineteenth and twentieth century and in the period of reconstruction after World War II.

This book, first published in 1967, explores some of the problems formulating investment criteria for the public sector of a mixed-enterprise, underdeveloped economy. The typical essay on public investment criteria explicitly or implicitly postulates a single goal for economic analysis - maximization of weighted average of national income over time - and relegates all other objectives of public policy to a limbo of "political" and "social" objectives not amenable to systematic, rational treatment. In contrast Professor Marglin assumes a multiplicity of objectives and explores ways and means of expressing contributions to different objectives in common terms. The book also investigates the relationship of specific investment criteria to the objectives of public policy. Benefits and costs are defined separately for each objective, as are so-called "secondary" benefits. This book is suited for students of economics.

Benefit-cost analysis reduces all of the impacts of a proposed policy change to a common unit of measurement. It is used in a wide variety of fields including agriculture, life and health, transportation and the environment.In this single volume the editors, both leading scholars in their field, present a judicious selection of previously published papers indispensable to the study of applied benefit-cost analysis. The comprehensive collection is an essential resource to scholars, researchers and policymakers alike.

The 37th annual edition of the leading guide to taxation in Britain. This practical and user-friendly guide is a bestseller with students, professionals, accountants and private individuals, explaining in simple terms how the UK tax system works and how best to minimise tax liabilities

The essays in this book treat the relationships among politics, taxation, and the rule of law. A central tenet of democratic ideology is that taxation is something that we choose to do to ourselves, rather than being something that is imposed on us by some ruler. The basic ideology of the American constitutional founding is that government is not the source of our rights of person and property. To the contrary, government is something we establish with our prior rights of person and property to preserve and protect those rights. While it is possible to articulate some intellectual notions about good government and appropriate taxation, it does not follow from the mere fact of this articulation that actual taxation works as articulated. Taxation may be a necessary means of preserving and protecting rights of person and property, but it might also operate in various ways to undermine, abridge, and erode those rights. The central tenet of democratic ideology, a tenet that is reflected thoroughly in the American constitutional founding, is that it is people's prior right to their property that limits the reach of government. This ideology rejects without a second thought any notion that government defines the limits of people's right to property. Yet democratic practice may well contradict and subvert democratic ideology, though the relationship between practice and ideology is not so simple as one being dominant over the other.

The twin objectives of this book are to identity the determinants and to explore the implications of Third World military expenditure. Beginning with a descriptive profile of Third World military expenditure, the study uses cross-national and longitudinal data to explore the determinants and implications across a range of issues areas. On the basis of this analysis, the book concludes with an empirical theory of military expenditure and a critical appraisal of the general implications.

On the surface the new president seems to inherit an empty house," Hugh Heclo, a recognized expert on American democratic institutions, has noted. "In fact, he enters an office already shaped and crowded by other people's desires." Empowering the White House examines how Richard Nixon entered that crowded Oval Office in 1969 yet managed to change it in a way that augmented the power of the presidency and continues to influence into the twenty-first century how his successors have governed.

Nixon's White House is perhaps best remembered for the growth in the size of the staff, which operated under the supposed iron fist of H. R. Haldeman. But more important than size and management style to the character of the Nixon White House were the assigned tasks, complexity, and dynamics of the burgeoning staff. Faced with hostile majorities in Congress and executive branch careerists assumed to be committed to a Democratic agenda, Nixon sought to control his political fate by engaging more actively than earlier presidents in public relations and the mobilization of support. At the command and under the control of the Oval Office, the staff carried out assignments designed to fulfill Nixon's aims.

This theoretically informed and well-researched study explains how Nixon changed and expanded the institutionalized presidency and how that affected the Ford and Carter administrations. Nixon ushered in a new stage in the modern presidency by organizing and using his increasingly complex staff in new ways that have persisted beyond the 1970s to this day. To a greater degree than any predecessor, Nixon systematized outreach, legal advice, and policy formulation. His White House staffing, then, has come to be regarded as a "standard model" that influences incoming presidents regardless of party affiliation.

Leavening this organizational study are revealing accounts of how the Nixon, Ford, and Carter staffs operated behind the scenes in the West Wing. Anyone needing to know how the White House worked during those presidencies--or how it has worked since--will find this book invaluable.

Challenging the prevailing view of privatization, this book analyzes the state of privatization around the world and offers policy suggestions. It includes original material of an analytical, empirical, and case study nature on the theory and practice of privatization, its relationship with the globalization of capital, its political and ideological underpinnings, its political, social, and economic consequences around the world. Its originality, currency, and critical perspectives make it a unique source for a wide variety of audiences.

The book's opening chapters deal with an extensive theoretical introduction followed by discussions on contracting out, public enterprise reform, and UN-led evaluations of contracting performance. In part two, the book turns to privatization and its flaws in major industrialized nations, including the United States, France, Germany, United Kingdom, and Australia. Part three analyzes privatization and its effects on policy and administration in Asian and Middle Eastern countries, including Post-revolutionary Iran, India, Singapore, Hong Kong-China, and Arab developing countries. Arguing that privatization is a poor policy with many dangers, the book offers suggestions for serious reform of public enterprise management and for alternatives to privatization.

What role should regulation play in financial markets? What have been the ramifications of financial regulation? To answer these and other questions regarding the efficacy of legislation on financial markets, this book examines the impact of the Gramm Leach Bliley Act (GLBA), also called the Financial Modernization Act of 1999, which fundamentally changed the financial landscape in the United States. The GLBA allows the formation of financial holding companies that can offer an integrated set of commercial banking, securities and insurance products. The tenth anniversary of the most sweeping financial legislation reform in the industry's structure is a natural benchmark for assessing the effects of the law and for questioning whether changes are necessary in the working of this historic legislation. The importance of this review is reinforced by a variety of proposals in the last several years to reform the regulation of financial institutions that have attracted considerable attention among regulators and in the financial firms that they regulate. Most recently, the financial crisis and the failure of some large financial institutions have called into question the legitimacy of America's current financial structure and its regulation, including to some degree the GLBA. There is no doubt that regulatory reform is front and center on today's policy agenda. The lessons of the GLBA experience and its effects, both domestic and international, on financial markets and competitiveness, risk-taking and risk management by financial services firms and their regulators will be critical to the direction the country takes and the effort to ensure that future financial crises do not occur or have less costly damage. With contributions from academics, policy experts, and a sponsor of the GLBA, Congressman James Leach, this book is invaluable to anyone interested in financial system reform.

The sound management of public finances is, in Williams' view, the most important factor in attaining the twin objectives of economic growth and improvement in the standard of living in small open developing economies. While looking at the challenges of public finance management in small states, with a focus on Barbados, this book suggests strategies of fiscal and microeconomic management for small economies that will permit them to ensure macroeconomic stability while promoting economic growth and development. In discussing the philosophy of public finance, it examines small size and openness, using both traditional criteria and modern perspectives of liberalized systems. It deals with the challenge of avoiding overly expansionary budgets and the need for counter cyclical policies in relation to macroeconomic objectives.

This book also discusses state involvement in commercial types of enterprise and the implications for efficiency and economic growth. The Keynesian approach to fiscal spending is compared with the structuralist approach, which takes into account initial conditions and inflexibilities facing small developing economies. The government's role in financing accelerated economic development, its social responsibility, and the balancing need for fiscal discipline are also considered. The public finance performance of governments is seen as facing important challenges to its capacity to champion economic development given the increasing global perception of a mostly regulatory and stabilizing role of government.

This discussion is part of a series which aims to cover a broad spectrum of topics related to economic inequality. It discusses: is the size distribution of income stationary? Trade liberalization and the US living standard; inequality and unemployment; and, identifying low standards of living.

Local Government Tax and Land Use Policies in the United States is an accessible, non-technical evaluation of the most recent economic thinking on the nexus between local land use and tax policies. In Part I, Helen Ladd provides a comprehensive summary of the extensive literature on the interaction of local land use and tax policies. She explores the theoretical controversies and clarifies issues such as the use of land use regulation as a fiscal tool, the effects of taxes on economic activity and the success of tax policies to promote economic development. In Parts II and III, a group of experts presents new research on important issues such as the impact of growth on tax burdens, metropolitan tax base sharing, the incidence of impact fees and the shift to land value taxation in urban areas. This book raises provocative questions concerning the conventional wisdom in fiscal policy. It will be indispensable for economists and students interested in urban issues and local public finance as well as planners and policymakers.

Funding infrastructure has always been a challenging issue in any country and at any time, yet the topic is still largely unexplored. The social returns of investment in water, roads, railways, or more recently telegraph or communication satellites are often apparent in the long run, but this distant horizon poses special problems to governments and investors. This volume provides a broad overview of the main financing solutions implemented in Europe to support infrastructures from the fall of the Roman Empire up to the end of the 20th century. It explores the diverse historical paths pursued in order to solve the problem of infrastructure finance in various European countries, and draws upon the findings of an international and interdisciplinary research project. It brings together case studies by economic historians, economists, and engineers, and the clear taxonomy guides the reader through the financing solutions that have been developed to fund infrastructure over almost three thousand years. The volume is organized into four parts; after an introductory chapter by the editors, Part One offers 'horizontal' contributions that cover the history of European infrastructure finance. Parts Two, Three, and Four each focus on a single sector, namely water, transport, and telecommunications. The findings show how history can inform thinking on contemporary infrastructure problems.

The single market has been operating in Europe since 1 January 1993 but the twelve national fiscal systems remain independent. How will this be resolved? Harmonization and coordination or fiscal competition with distortions in the allocation of resources, in factor use, in localization of activities?

Judicial Interpretation of Tax Treaties is a detailed, comprehensive analytical guide to the interpretation of tax treaties at the national level. The book focuses on how domestic courts interpret and apply the OECD Commentary to the OECD Model Tax Convention on Income and on Capital. Adopting a global perspective, the book gives a systematic presentation of the main interpretive proposals put forward by the OECD Commentary, and analyses selected cases decided in domestic tax systems in order to assess whether and how such solutions are adopted through national judicial process, and indeed which of these are of most practical value. The book operates on two levels: Firstly it sets out a clear and comprehensive framework of tax treaty law, which will be an important tool for any tax practitioner. Secondly, the book provides crucial guidance on issues of tax treaty law as applied at domestic level, such as investment or business income, dispute resolution and administrative cooperation. Key features: - A detailed and structured introduction to the main issues of tax treaties - Ideal for practitioners requiring a grounding in the functioning of tax treaty law - Concise summaries of the relevant issues, cases, and problems for each discrete chapter - Offers a basic 'globalized' handbook that is missing in the current literature about judicial application of tax treaties. This comprehensive treatment of tax treaty law is a ready reference for tax practitioners, and an essential introduction for non-specialists. The book can also be used as a companion to courses in international taxation.

Global warming is a serious threat to the stability of world climate and to economic prosperity in some regions. The book offers a theoretical analysis which focuses on double dividend issues. Moreover, the ecological tax reform in Germany and the options of modern energy policy are described and evaluated. The volume presents innovative model simulations and analyzes, in the context of the model, the benefits of a modified tax reform, based on a Schumpeterian approach. Finally, implications for the European Union and other countries are discussed.