Financial Transparency Coalition

In the words of two of my personal heroes: “Economists love incentives. They love to dream them up and enact them, study them, and tinker with them.” For good reason; incentives make the world go round. They are the reason we get up in the morning, the reason we go to work, and definitely the reason we brush our teeth. They are dictate the speed we drive, the groceries we buy, and the pace of our work. Sometimes they are negative (the prospect of getting a cavity or a speeding ticket) and sometimes they are positive (a raise, or a...

As I have noted, there is a popular argument among advocates of tax havens that these jurisdictions provide a positive influence on the world through so-called “tax competition.” Mostly these advocates toss this phrase into their arguments with the misguided hope that those hearing it will not think too long and hard about it, because at the end of the day, it doesn’t make much sense. As far as I can tell, the most comprehensive definition of tax competition was put forward by Richard Teather, a tax specialist from the UK, in “The Benefits of Tax Competition.” Teather...