IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/and/journl/v6y2006i1p107-128.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How Effective is the Tobin Tax in Coping with Financial Volatility?

Author

Listed:
  • Mustafa Erdogdu
  • Hale Balseven

    (Marmara University
    Akdeniz University)

Abstract

The last two decades have witnessed increasingly frequent and severe financial crises that many related to short-term speculation. Consequently, James Tobin’s proposition of a small tax on cross-border currency transactions to reduce such speculation has featured prominently in the discussions on the future of the international financial system. Opponents claim that such a tax can easily be circumvented and would not be effective. This paper scrutinizes these claims in the light of recent refinements made in the literature to make an assessment for the Tobin tax’s effectiveness in coping with financial volatility. Evaluation of the paper suggests that such a tax, indeed, would not only be effective in reducing financial volatility but also technically feasible and relatively easy to apply.

Suggested Citation

  • Mustafa Erdogdu & Hale Balseven, 2006. "How Effective is the Tobin Tax in Coping with Financial Volatility?," Anadolu University Journal of Social Sciences, Anadolu University, vol. 6(1), pages 107-128, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:and:journl:v:6:y:2006:i:1:p:107-128
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.anadolu.edu.tr/arastirma/hakemli_dergiler/sosyal_bilimler/pdf/2006-1/sos_bil.6.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Korkut Erturk, 2006. "On the Tobin Tax," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 71-78.
    2. Robert P. Flood & Mark P. Taylor, 1996. "Exchange Rate Economics: What's Wrong with the Conventional Macro Approach?," NBER Chapters, in: The Microstructure of Foreign Exchange Markets, pages 261-302, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. James Tobin, 1978. "A Proposal for International Monetary Reform," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 4(3-4), pages 153-159, Jul/Oct.
    4. Thomas Palley, 2001. "Destabilizing Speculation and the Case for an International Currency Transactions Tax," Challenge, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(3), pages 70-89.
    5. K.S. Jomo & Ilene Grabel & Gerald Epstein, 2003. "Capital Management Techniques In Developing Countries: An Assessment of Experiences From the 1990s and Lessons for the Future," Working Papers wp56, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    6. Frank Westerhoff, 2003. "Heterogeneous traders and the Tobin tax," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 53-70, February.
    7. Mr. P. Bernd Spahn, 1995. "International Financial Flows and Transactions Taxes: Survey and Options," IMF Working Papers 1995/060, International Monetary Fund.
    8. Bruno Jetin, 2003. "How can a Currency Transaction Tax Stabilize Foreign Exchange Markets?," Post-Print halshs-03211712, HAL.
    9. Korkut Erturk, 2002. "Why the Tobin Tax Can Be Stabilizing," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_366, Levy Economics Institute.
    10. Bruno Jetin, 2012. "The Tobin tax," Post-Print halshs-02020052, HAL.
    11. Frederic S. Mishkin & Andrew Crockett & Michael P. Dooley & Montek S. Ahluwalia, 2003. "Financial Policies," NBER Chapters, in: Economic and Financial Crises in Emerging Market Economies, pages 93-154, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Machiko Nissanke, 2003. "Revenue Potential of the Currency Transaction Tax for Development Finance: A Critical Appraisal," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2003-81, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hale Balseven, 2016. "The Political Economy of Financial Regulation Policies Following the Global Crisis," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 6(2), pages 607-616.
    2. Yates Nicholas A, 2009. "Revisiting the Tobin Tax, in the Context of Development and the Financial Crisis," The Law and Development Review, De Gruyter, vol. 2(1), pages 257-282, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Danuse Nerudova, 2011. "Taxing the financial sector in the European Union," MENDELU Working Papers in Business and Economics 2011-16, Mendel University in Brno, Faculty of Business and Economics.
    2. Yates Nicholas A, 2009. "Revisiting the Tobin Tax, in the Context of Development and the Financial Crisis," The Law and Development Review, De Gruyter, vol. 2(1), pages 257-282, November.
    3. Bruno Jetin, 2012. "The Tobin tax," Post-Print halshs-02020052, HAL.
    4. Damette, Olivier, 2016. "Mixture Distribution Hypothesis And The Impact Of A Tobin Tax On Exchange Rate Volatility: A Reassessment," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(6), pages 1600-1622, September.
    5. Veronika Solilová & Danuše Nerudová, 2015. "Financial Transaction Tax: Determination of Economic Impact Under DSGE Model," Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, Mendel University Press, vol. 63(2), pages 627-637.
    6. Machiko Nissanke, 2003. "Revenue Potential of the Currency Transaction Tax for Development Finance: A Critical Appraisal," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2003-81, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    7. Graham Bird & Ramkishen S. Rajan, 2004. "Coping with, and Cashing in on, International Capital Volatility," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: International Finance and the Developing Economies, chapter 11, pages 181-203, Palgrave Macmillan.
    8. Danuše Nerudová, 2013. "Taxing of financial sector as possible own resource of EU budget," Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, Mendel University Press, vol. 61(4), pages 1051-1060.
    9. Westerhoff, Frank H. & Dieci, Roberto, 2006. "The effectiveness of Keynes-Tobin transaction taxes when heterogeneous agents can trade in different markets: A behavioral finance approach," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 293-322, February.
    10. Westerhoff Frank H., 2008. "The Use of Agent-Based Financial Market Models to Test the Effectiveness of Regulatory Policies," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 228(2-3), pages 195-227, April.
    11. Filip Stanek & Jiri Kukacka, 2018. "The Impact of the Tobin Tax in a Heterogeneous Agent Model of the Foreign Exchange Market," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 51(4), pages 865-892, April.
    12. Suzanne de Brunhoff & Bruno Jetin, 2000. "The Tobin Tax and the Regulation of Capital Movements," Post-Print halshs-03212812, HAL.
    13. Gaffeo, Edoardo & Molinari, Massimo, 2017. "Taxing financial transactions in fundamentally heterogeneous markets," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 322-333.
    14. Michał Zator, 2014. "Transaction costs and volatility on Warsaw Stock Exchange: implications for financial transaction tax," Bank i Kredyt, Narodowy Bank Polski, vol. 45(4), pages 349-372.
    15. Pellizzari, Paolo & Westerhoff, Frank, 2009. "Some effects of transaction taxes under different microstructures," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 72(3), pages 850-863, December.
    16. Bruno Jetin, 2003. "How can a Currency Transaction Tax Stabilize Foreign Exchange Markets?," Post-Print halshs-03211712, HAL.
    17. Olivier Damette & Stéphane Goutte, 2014. "Tobin tax and trading volume tightening: a reassessment," Working Papers halshs-00926805, HAL.
    18. Takuji Kinkyo, 2004. "Transmission channels of capital flow shocks: why Korean crisis was so severe," Working Papers 139, Department of Economics, SOAS University of London, UK.
    19. Anna M.Variato, 2003. "The Keynesian Root of the Tobin tax," Working Papers (-2012) 0305, University of Bergamo, Department of Economics.
    20. David Stubbs, 2012. "Adopting a Currency Transaction Tax When Avoidance is a Possibility: Which Currencies Would Take the Lead and What Rate Could they Charge?," Working Papers 1204, New School for Social Research, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Globalization; Short-Term Capital Movements; Tobin Tax.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F32 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Current Account Adjustment; Short-term Capital Movements
    • H27 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Other Sources of Revenue
    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:and:journl:v:6:y:2006:i:1:p:107-128. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Social Sciences Institute (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iianatr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.