Tax Harmonization and Financial Liberalization in Europe Proceedings of Conferences Held by the Confederation of European Economic Associations in 1989

In Part 1 the book begins with an introduction in which the fear is expressed that production in Europe will be reorganized according to comparative tax advantage, not comparative cost advantage. It is proposed that the invisible hand of fiscal competition among states would degenerate them into nightwatchman states unless taxes are harmonized. The first part of the book contains an overview of taxation issues from the EC's perspective, followed by the presentation of national perspectives: the UK's view, the effect of taxes on cross-border shopping between Ireland and the UK, the Belgian, French, German, Austrian and Italian view. In Part 2 a survey of policy issues involved in financial integration is presented. An empirical study demonstrates that French financial markets were already opened up in the past. Tax treatment of savings in the context of financial liberalization as well as the structural changes of the European insurance industry in response to an increasing freedom of service are discussed. In the final section the progress of European economic integration is evaluated from a French, a German and an Austrian (EFTA) perspective.