IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/tur/wpapnw/010.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Fiscal Harmonization: Credible Goal or Trojan Horse?

Author

Listed:
  • Enrico Colombatto

    (Department of Economics and Statistics (Dipartimento di Scienze Economico-Sociali e Matematico-Statistiche), University of Torino, Italy)

Abstract

The supply-side literature underscores two main concepts. Taxation usually harms growth and fiscal competition provides effective protection against excessive fiscal pressure. Understandably, governments tend to dislike fiscal competition, and strive to create fiscal cartels justified by the general principle of fiscal harmonization. This paper argues that, from the policymakers' standpoint, fiscal harmonization is inferior to automatic exchange of information among fiscal authorities and also to schemes of anonymous withholding taxes. By contrast, fiscal harmonization could be a useful instrument that international bureaucrats resort to in order to obtain fiscal centralization. We conclude that their chances to succeed largely depend on the rent-seeking strategies pursued by the national decision-makers and on the perceived legitimacy of the federal authorities.

Suggested Citation

  • Enrico Colombatto, 2012. "Fiscal Harmonization: Credible Goal or Trojan Horse?," Working papers 010, Department of Economics, Social Studies, Applied Mathematics and Statistics (Dipartimento di Scienze Economico-Sociali e Matematico-Statistiche), University of Torino.
    • Handle: RePEc:tur:wpapnw:010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.bemservizi.unito.it/repec/tur/wpapnw/m10.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2012
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. N. Gregory Mankiw & Matthew Weinzierl & Danny Yagan, 2009. "Optimal Taxation in Theory and Practice," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(4), pages 147-174, Fall.
    2. Benno Torgler & Friedrich Schneider, 2007. "What Shapes Attitudes Toward Paying Taxes? Evidence from Multicultural European Countries," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 88(2), pages 443-470, June.
    3. Benno Torgler & Friedrich Schneider, 2007. "What Shapes Attitudes Toward Paying Taxes? Evidence from Multicultural European Countries," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 88(2), pages 443-470, June.
    4. repec:bla:scandj:v:85:y:1983:i:4:p:499-519 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Andreas Bergh & Magnus Henrekson, 2011. "Government Size And Growth: A Survey And Interpretation Of The Evidence," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(5), pages 872-897, December.
    6. Hannes Winner, 2005. "Has Tax Competition Emerged in OECD Countries? Evidence from Panel Data," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 12(5), pages 667-687, September.
    7. Aleksandra Riedl & Silvia Rocha-Akis, 2012. "How elastic are national corporate income tax bases in OECD countries? The role of domestic and foreign tax rates," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 45(2), pages 632-671, May.
    8. Simone Salotti & Carmine Trecroci, 2012. "Even Worse than You thought: The Impact of Public Debt on Aggregate Investment and Productivity," DEGIT Conference Papers c017_020, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. repec:tur:wpapnw:10 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Enrico Colombatto, 2015. "An alternative to the Laffer curve: Theory and consequences," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 28(1), pages 75-92, March.
    3. Eric M. Uslaner, 2007. "Tax Evasion, Corruption, and the Social Contract in Transition," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0725, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    4. Luca Andriani, 2012. "Tax Morale and Pro-Social Behavior: Evidence from a Palestinian Survey," Working Papers 712, Economic Research Forum, revised 2012.
    5. Dossè Mawussi Djahini‐Afawoubo, 2024. "Understanding tax payment behaviour in the West African Economic and Monetary Union: The role of perceived detection capacity and honesty," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(2), pages 795-823, March.
    6. Claudia Keser & David Masclet & Claude Montmarquette, 2020. "Labor Supply, Taxation, and the Use of Tax Revenues: A Real-Effort Experiment in Canada, France, and Germany," Public Finance Review, , vol. 48(6), pages 714-750, November.
    7. Åsa Johansson, 2016. "Public Finance, Economic Growth and Inequality: A Survey of the Evidence," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1346, OECD Publishing.
    8. Khalil, Sandra & Sidani, Yusuf, 2020. "The influence of religiosity on tax evasion attitudes in Lebanon," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    9. Samia Tarannum Chowdhury, 2015. "Is Bangladeshi Professionals¡¯ Tax-Paying Behavior in Convergence with the Principles of Taxation?," Research in World Economy, Research in World Economy, Sciedu Press, vol. 6(3), pages 55-63, September.
    10. Reinhard Neck & Jens Wächter & Friedrich Schneider, 2012. "Tax avoidance versus tax evasion: on some determinants of the shadow economy," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 19(1), pages 104-117, February.
    11. Elena D’Agostino & Marco Alberto De Benedetto & Giuseppe Sobbrio, 2023. "Does the economic freedom hinder the underground economy? Evidence from a cross-country analysis," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 40(1), pages 319-341, April.
    12. Gabriel Leonardo & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, 2016. "Politicians, bureaucrats, and tax morale: What shapes tax compliance attitudes?," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper1608, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    13. Mutascu, Mihai, 2011. "Compulsory voting and tax revenues," MPRA Paper 33987, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Călin Vâlsan & Elena Druică & Rodica Ianole-Călin, 2020. "State Capacity and Tolerance towards Tax Evasion: First Evidence from Romania," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-18, June.
    15. Libman, Alexander & Schultz, André & Graeber, Thomas, 2011. "Tax return as a political statement," Frankfurt School - Working Paper Series 169, Frankfurt School of Finance and Management.
    16. Pickhardt, Michael & Prinz, Aloys, 2014. "Behavioral dynamics of tax evasion – A survey," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 1-19.
    17. Mathieu Lefebvre & Pierre Pestieau & Arno Riedl & Marie Villeval, 2015. "Tax evasion and social information: an experiment in Belgium, France, and the Netherlands," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 22(3), pages 401-425, June.
    18. Karlinger, Liliane, 2009. "The Underground Economy in the Late 1990s: Evading Taxes, or Evading Competition?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(10), pages 1600-1611, October.
    19. Stefania Ottone & Ferruccio Ponzano & Giulia Andrighetto, 2018. "Tax compliance under different institutional settings in Italy and Sweden: an experimental analysis," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 35(2), pages 367-402, August.
    20. Raffaella Basile & Bruno Chiarini & Elisabetta Marzano, 2011. "Can we Rely upon Fiscal Policy Estimates in Countries with Unreported Production of 15 Per Cent (or more) of GDP?," CESifo Working Paper Series 3521, CESifo.
    21. Stefan Petranov & Ìilena Angelova & Lillyana Georgieva & Radostina Ivcheva & Nino Avreyski, 2023. "Is Tax Morale Homogeneous in Bulgaria?," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 3, pages 64-87.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • H3 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents
    • H7 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations
    • H8 - Public Economics - - Miscellaneous Issues

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:tur:wpapnw:010. 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: Daniele Pennesi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dstorit.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.