Tax rules encouraging excessive debt, complex financial transactions, poorly designed incentive compensation for corporate managers, and highly leveraged home ownership all may have contributed to the financial crisis, but do not appear to have been among the primary causes. Even without a...

The economic crisis that erupted in 2008 has prompted many countries to rethink, and several already to reform, the taxation of financial institutions. The underlying analytical issues, however, have received almost no attention in the public finance literature. This article explores the...