It is a widely acknowledged result of the literature on international tax competition that an inefficient provision of public goods can only be avoided, if taxes are sufficiently coordinated. In this paper we use a model where governments use commodity and factor taxes in the tax competition...

Der Finanzwissenschaftliche Ausschuß des Vereins für Socialpolitik hat 1997 auf der Rostocker Tagung begonnen, sich mit Problemen der Besteuerung zu befassen (vgl. den von A. Oberhauser herausgegebenen Band 'Probleme der Besteuerung I', Berlin 1998). Diese Diskussion wurde 1998 auf der...

Pension policy reforms across the world in recent decades are a reaction to the changing demographic and socioeconomic environment. While pension scheme redesign has received much attention, the tax treatment of contributions, returns, and benefits of retirement savings remains mostly unattended...

Das Papier gibt einen Überblick über die in der jüngeren finanzwissenschaftlichen Literatur diskutierten Konzepte der Progressionsmessung. Methodisch wird dabei Progression als Tarifeigenschaft bzw. als Kaufkraftentzugsphänomen auf individueller und gesamtwirtschaftlicher Ebene sowie mit und...

Quantitative indicators of the tax burden used in political discussions, quite often do not prove very reliable for two reasons; either they are rather crude summary measures or they are rather selectivly chosen benchmark tax load figures. A natural way to improve the situation is to introduce...

The paper first considers two properties of measures of effective progression, proportional yield neutrality and linear decomposability. It is shown that decomposability implies yield neutrality but not the converse. The concept of sensitivity of a measure to progression in various ranges of the...

The paper surveys the characteristics of the common European VAT system, proposed by the EU-Commission to overcome the weaknesses of the transitional European VAT system, which was enacted in 1993 and is still in force. We argue that a harmonized VAT rate will generate substantial costs for EU...

The Dutch pension system is internationally top-ranked as a well-designed three-pillar system. Moreover, almost all forms of pension benefits are expenditure taxed in line with the European Commission’s recommendations. Consequently, the Dutch pension policy approach could be regarded as a...