Most systems of health care financing in EU member states currently include elements of income redistribution. The paper analyzes the effects of shifting income redistribution entirely to the tax system, while confining public health systems to their insurance role. We argue that this reform...

We analyze tax competition between two countries of unequal size trying to attract a foreign-owned monopolist. When regional governments have only a lump-sum profit tax (subsidy) at their disposal, but face exogenous and identical transport costs for imports, then both countries will always...

A two-sector trade model with perfect international capital mobility and endogenous supply of specific factors is used to analyze the relation between selective taxes on production (origin-based commodity taxes) and source-based taxes on capital income. A small open economy will set both of...

A widely noticed result by de Crombrugghe and Tulkens (1990) states that asymmetric commodity tax competition always leads to tax rates being too low in both countries, even though there are counteracting tax base and terms of trade effects. This note argues that the result depends crucially on...

The paper analyzes strategic commodity taxation in a model with trade in a single private good which is simultaneously imported by consumers of a high-tax region and exported by its producers. Conditions for the existence of a Nash equilibrium are given and an asymmetry is introduced through...

There is little doubt that the step towards a monetary union in Europe will increase both the distortionary effects of existing differences in national tax systems and the intensity of tax competition for internationally mobile commodity and factor tax bases. This paper discusses selected issues...

The paper sets up an analytical framework within which the arguments for centralized vs. decentralized tax policy can be represented and weighed against each other. Two aspects of the debate are considered: first, the global welfare effects of 'harmonizing' tax reforms are discussed when...

We analyze the restricted origin principle for taxing international trade in a three-country, three-commodity model where two of the countries form an economic union. Using simplifying assumptions with respect to the initial tax equilibrium and the structure of preferences, the effects of a...

The paper analyzes the optimal mix of capital and wage taxation when policymakers maximize the political support of workers and capitalists, subject to a fixed revenue requirement. Capital market integration increases the efficiency costs of a tax on capital but simultaneously changes the...