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Contributions from
the Column
Books and Media
Where do hunger and poverty come from? – An explanation for young readers
Tobin tax
First study, then support
02/2003
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Tobin tax
Paul Bernd Spahn: Zur Durchführbarkeit einer Devisentransaktionssteuer (Feasibility of a foreign exchange transaction tax), Bonn, Weltforum Verlag 2002, 166 pp, € 14.30, ISBN 3-8039-0501-X (BMZ Research Report 130)
Tobin tax – named after the man who invented it – is a tax on foreign exchange transactions, a tax designed to put an end to currency speculation. And because such a tax would generate revenues, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) commissioned Frankfurt economist Paul Bernd Spahn to work out a practicable proposal in time for the UN Conference on Financing for Development in March 2002 in Monterrey. The tax Spahn came up with is actually two taxes: one very low tax, spread over all foreign exchange transactions so as to generate revenues without interfering with currency trading as a whole, and a high anti-speculation tax, levied only if a currency breaks out of a previously defined "target corridor". Spahn says that, from a fiscal viewpoint, introducing his tax would be no big problem; all it would take is the political will. (ell)
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