The Tobin Tax: Coping with Financial Volatility

Edited by Mahbub ul Haq, Inge Kaul, Isabelle Grunberg

ISBN 10: 0195111818 / ISBN 13: 9780195111811

Published by Oxford University Press, New York, 1996

About this Item

Minor discoloration to pages. Some wear along the edges, tips, and along the spine. Some rubbing wear to covers along with light creases and/or wrinkles at some spots.

Seller Inventory # 117439

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Tobin Tax: Coping with Financial Volatility
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, New York
• Publication Date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195111818
• ISBN 13: 9780195111811
• Binding: Soft cover
• Printing: 1st Printing
• Condition: Good
• Weight: 2 pounds

About this title

Synopsis

In his 1972 Janeway Lectures at Princeton, James Tobin, the 1981 Nobel Prize winner for economics, submitted a proposal for a levy on international currency transactions. The idea was not greeted with enthusiasm, as the 1970s were a period of optimism and confidence in floating exchange rages. Yet, whenever currency crises erupted during the past decades, the proposal for a levy on international currency transactions would once again arise. In the 1990s, two additional facts have sharpened interest in the Tobin tax proposal. First is the growing volume of foreign exchange trading. Second, interest is coming not only from policymakers and experts concerned with the smooth functioning of financial markets. It is shared by those concerned with public financing of development--the fiscal crisis of the state as well as the growing need for international cooperation on problems such as the environment, poverty, peace and security.

This work makes a systematic analysis of the proposal for a foreign exchange transactions levy. Its chapters examine the economic desirability of such a levy, its technical and political feasibility, its revenue potential, the possible uses of that revenue, and related administrative and institutional aspects.

About the Author

Mahbub ul Haq^ is Director of the Human Development Center in Islamabad, Pakistan. Inge Kaul is Director of the Office of Development Studies at the United Nations Development Program. Isabelle Grunberg is Senior Policy Analyst at the United Nations Development Program.