Regulators and the courts are increasing privacy constraints upon the news media. Journalists and editors are being called to account for their decisions which intrude into the private lives of citizens under the pretext of being in the so-called “public interest”. Judges and self-regulatory...

This paper analyses the impact on production efficiency of potential harmonisation of the taxation of income from capital in the European Union. It develops and applies a methodology for computing the cost of capital for transnational investments to assess the degree to which production...

Although it is now over twenty years since the European Commission first published proposals concerning the harmonisation of corporate taxes, the debate on the desirablility of any such reform has not yet achieved a high political profile. However, it seems likely that the elimination or...

Corporate taxes are now one of the few obstacles to a better international allocation of capital. This arises from the steady removal of barriers to capital flows and the increasing integration of capital markets. This provides, in a common format, the main corporate tax provisions of all 24...

The paper discusses principles of local taxation such as accountability, benefit-tax link, non-distortion, regional equity, long-term efficiency, reliability and stability of tax bases, tax sharing as implicit insurance, and administrative simplicity. Not all of the criteria for local taxation...

The paper looks a China's institutional reforms in public finances against the background of European experiences. Particular attention is given to Switzerland and Germany where there is a high degree of consensus forming mechanisms. These federations are also characterized by concepts of...

The theory of fiscal federalism makes a strong case for decentralizing government functions in order to enhance the efficiency of allocating public goods where preferences differ among regions. Decentralized collective decision making fosters social and political cohesion at the level of the...

The paper discusses the features of fiscal equalization in Germany and its recent challenges, notably those related to re-unification. It analyzes its distributional effects of the Finanzausgleich, which are found to be strong, sometimes even reversing the order of State fiscal endowments per...

The article reviews the elements of the Marshall Plan after World War II, and relates its positive features to economic challenges of the end of the 20th century.