This study is motivated by frequent calls to harmonize labor standards across countries, which result from the fear that economic integration (and the accompanying liberalization of trade flows) will lead to an erosion of working conditions, as countries deliberately try to reduce labor...

Warum macht die Harmonisierung der Unternehmens- und Kapitalertragsbesteuerung in der Europäischen Union kaum Fortschritte, obwohl sie im Binnenmarkt heftigem Steuerwettbewerb ausgesetzt ist, und warum ist die Umsatzbesteuerung weitgehend harmonisiert worden, obwohl sie gegen Steuerwettbewerb...

We show that tax competition in the EU is shaped by four interrelated institutional mechanisms: 1) Market integration, by reducing the transaction costs of cross-border tax arbitrage in the Single Market, 2) enlargement, by increasing the number and heterogeneity of states involved in intra-EU...

The paper analyzes the common assumption that the EU has little power over taxation. We find that the EU’s own taxing power is indeed narrowly circumscribed: its revenues have evolved from rather supranational beginnings in the 1950s towards an increasingly intergovernmental system. Based on a...

Is corporate tax competition a threat to democracy in the EU? The answer depends crucially on a positive analysis of the effects of tax competition on national policy autonomy. Most analyses focus on direct effects on corporate tax rates and revenues. We contend that this focus is too narrow. It...