The convergence of telecommunications and computer technology stimulated a global expansion of networks and services which was accompanied by a deregulation of this industry. In the liberalized worldmarket a great number of heterogeneous actors must coordinate the development and production of...

How does international tax competition affect fiscal democracy? To what extent does it constrain the autonomy of democratic governments in choosing the level and structure of national taxation? While tax competition has not reduced the level of total taxation in OECD-22 countries, it has revenue...

Does economic globalization erase domestic policy autonomy? Globalization theorists argue that it does, globalization-skeptics counter that it doesn't. Reality, of course, is more nuanced. Analyzing tax policy in three country groups – OECD member states, tax havens, and least developed...

We argue that the independent agency of EU institutions can serve not only to tie the member states to previous policy commitments, as argued in the extant literature, but also to untie member states from commitments that have become outdated and harmful. The European Central Bank saved the Euro...

Most governance is indirect, carried out through intermediaries. Principal-agent (PA) theory views indirect governance primarily as a problem of information: the intermediary (agent) has an informational advantage over the governor (principal), which it can exploit for shirking, slacking or...

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...