This week COFFERS Richard Murphy was at the OECD debating with Arthur Laffer on the virtues and vices of tax competition. Richard prosecuted the position that tax competition is by definition always harmful – it is an unequivocal vice. He argued that tax competition harms free, fair and competitive markets preventing markets from delivering on the promise of socially optimal allocation. Tax competition also erodes democracy, the rule of law and the state. Richard suggests that the use of a COFFERS tool will help. With Andrew Baker of Sheffield University, Richard has developed a method for multilateral tax spillover analysis, the analysis of how much harm one country’s tax rules or tax rule application harms other countries.

Read Richard’s full argument here.