Tax Policy: Theory and Practice in OECD Countries

This book provides a broad analysis of standard tax policy in OECD countries in the first half of the twentieth century. It identifies broad trends in policy, summarises developments in the theory of tax policy and describes and compares policies actually adopted by various groups of countries. It is invaluable for anyone studying or involved in implementing tax policy. Public finance theory and the complexities of tax administration are kept to a minimum throughout to ensure accessibility.

Ken Messere was formerly Head of the Fiscal Affairs Division at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), before becoming a member of the Ruding Committee advising on business taxes in EU countries. He has acted as a consultant for the OECD, the IMF and the World Bank. His previous books include Tax Policies in OECD Countries: Choices and Conflicts (IBFD 1993), and The Tax System in Industrialised Countries (OUP 1998). Flip de Kam is a tax lawyer with a strong interest in the economics of the public sector. After a career in the civil service he was appointed Professor of Public Finance at Groningen University in 1988, and has also served as Head of the Tax Analysis Unit at the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration from 1997 to 1999. Christopher Heady is currently Head of the Tax Policy and Statistics Division at the OECD. He is an economist who has worked extensively on tax policy issues in both developed and developing countries, having been an Assistant Professor at Yale, a Lecturer then Reader at University College London and Professor of Applied Economics at the University of Bath. His previous books include Poverty and Social Exclusion in Europe (Edward Elgar 2002) and Fiscal Management and Economic Reform in the People's Republic of China (OUP 1995).