54,165 research outputs found

    "Why the Tobin Tax Can Be Stabilizing"

    No full text
    This paper clarifies why a transaction tax of the type proposed by James Tobin can have a stabilizing influence in financial markets. It argues that such a tax is potentially stabilizing, not because it reduces the "excessive" volume of transactions, but because it can slow the speed with which market traders react to price changes. To the extent that a Tobin tax causes financial market traders to delay their decisions a few "grains of sand in the wheels of international finance" can indeed be stabilizing. Whether that is sufficient, or whether boulders-not just grains-are needed to prevent speculative attacks on currencies, is, however, a different matter.

    The Tobin Tax A Review of the Evidence

    No full text
    The debate about the Tobin Tax, and other financial transaction taxes (FTT), gives rise to strong views both for and against. Unfortunately, little of this debate is based on the now considerable body of evidence about the impact of such taxes. This review attempts to synthesise what we know from the available theoretical and empirical literature about the impact of FTTs on volatility in financial markets. We also review the literature on how a Tobin Tax might be implemented, the amount of revenue that it might realistically produce, and the likely incidence of the tax. We conclude that, contrary to what is often assumed, a Tobin Tax is feasible and, if appropriately designed, could make a significant contribution to revenue without causing major distortions. However, it would be unlikely to reduce market volatility and could even increase it.Tobin tax, financial transaction taxes, volatility, revenue, incidence, feasibility

    The Keynesian Root of the Tobin tax

    No full text
    This paper is an attempt to evaluate the strength of the link between the Tobin tax and the so-called Keynes tax, i.e. a tax on security transactions suggested by Keynes in Chapter 12 of the General Theory. Starting from a literal comparison of the two projects, this work analyses the possibility of a common methodological background. It supports the idea that the two measures share similar fundamental targets, despite displaying technical diversity.Tobin tax, Keynes tax, security transaction taxes

    Cosmopolitan ethics in global finance? : a pragmatic approach to the Tobin Tax

    No full text
    The thesis provides a critical analysis of the problems and possibilities for developing cosmopolitan ethics in global finance. With reference to Ideas and debates within the campaign for a Tobin Tax, it is argued that cosmopolitanism is a promising, but limited, agenda for global reform. Extending principles of justice to support the re-distribution of wealth from financial markets towards an expanded program of global welfare provision is laudable. Likewise, the possibility of improving accountability mechanisms and fostering democratic inclusion in the global financial system should be supported. However, the thesis identifies and reflects upon some important ethical ambiguities relating to financial, institutional and democratic universalism. A requirement for capital account convertibility, a cash-based approach to global justice and proposals for state-centric world authority to administer the Tobin Tax infers that the proposal would entrench many of the logics its supporters might oppose. The thesis develops a pragmatic approach to these questions based on the philosophical pragmatism of Richard Rorty. A pragmatic approach acknowledges the historical and cultural contingency of cosmopolitanism, but questions how the ambiguities and tensions that pervade global ethics can be engaged. In this sense, and developing Rorty's concept of sentimental education, it is argued that the Tobin Tax campaign has generated a broad-based public conversation about global finance, increasing sensitivity to the suffering caused by global finance and the ways in which it might be changed. While such conversation may not solve all the dilemmas identified, it does allow for increased awareness of the ambiguity of ethics. The thesis points to a number of instances in the campaign where the constitutive ambiguities of the Tobin Tax have been questioned and alternative practices suggested. A pragmatic approach to the Tobin Tax campaign therefore situates cosmopolitan ideas in the extant dilemmas and indeterminacies of global ethics, looking to suggest alternatives where possible

    James Tobin : an appreciation of his contribution to economics.

    No full text
    Jim Tobin, who died on March 11, 2002 at the age of 84, was one of giants of economics of the second half of the twentieth century and the greatest macroeconomist of his generation. Tobin’s influence on macroeconomic theory is so pervasive - so much part of our professional ‘acquis’ - that many younger economists often are not even aware that it is his ideas they are elaborating, testing, criticising, refuting or re-inventing. In this Appreciation, I consider Tobin’s scholarly contributions, made over a period of more than 50 years. Tobin received the 1981 Nobel Memorial Prize “for his analysis of financial markets and their relations to expenditure decisions, employment, production and prices”. I consider his contributions to mean-variance portfolio demand and asset pricing theory, especially the Portfolio Separation Theorem; pitfalls in financial model building; portfolio balance and flow of funds models and the ‘credit channel’; the life-cycle model and social security; econometric methodology, including the Tobit estimator and his pioneering work using both time series and cross-sectional data to estimate food demand functions; economic growth; Tobin’s q; the ‘Tobin Tax’ ; the monetary and fiscal policy effectiveness debate, first with Milton Friedman and then with the New Classical Macroeconomics and Real Business Cycle schools; and Tobin’s approach to methodological questions including microfoundations and aggregation.

    James Tobin: An Appreciation of his Contribution to Economics

    No full text
    Jim Tobin, who died on March 11, 2002 at the age of 84, was one of giants of economics of the second half of the twentieth century and the greatest macroeconomist of his generation. Tobin's influence on macroeconomic theory is so pervasive - so much part of our professional 'acquis' - that many younger economists often are not even aware that it is his ideas they are elaborating, testing, criticising, refuting or re-inventing. In this Appreciation, I consider Tobin's scholarly contributions, made over a period of more than 50 years. Tobin received the 1981 Nobel Memorial Prize for his analysis of financial markets and their relations to expenditure decisions, employment, production and prices'. I consider his contributions to mean-variance portfolio demand and asset pricing theory, especially the Portfolio Separation Theorem; pitfalls in financial model building; portfolio balance and flow of funds models and the 'credit channel'; the life-cycle model and social security; econometric methodology, including the Tobit estimator and his pioneering work using both time series and cross-sectional data to estimate food demand functions; economic growth; Tobin's the 'Tobin Tax'; the monetary and fiscal policy effectiveness debate, first with Milton Friedman and then with the New Classical Macroeconomics and Real Business Cycle schools; and Tobin's approach to methodological questions including microfoundations and aggregation

    Ida Tateoka and Karen Tobin at the Colorado Springs Invitational, September 1995.

    No full text
    Photo shows Ida Tateoka and Karen Tobin at the Colorado Springs Invitational, September 199

    Inflation and Balanced-Path Growth with Alternative Payment Mechanisms

    No full text
    The paper shows that contrary to conventional wisdom an endogenous growth economy with human capital and alternative payment mechanisms can robustly explain major facets of the long run inflation experience. A negative inflation-growth relation is explained, including a striking nonlinearity found re-peatedly in empirical studies. A set of Tobin (1965) effects are also explained and, further, linked in magnitude to the growth effects through the interest elasticity of money demand. Undis-closed previously, this link helps fill out the intuition of how the inflation experience can be plausibly explained in a robust fashion with a model extended to include credit as a payment mechanism.Human capital, cash-in-advance, interest-elasticity, credit production

    Some Effects of Transaction Taxes Under Different Microstructures

    No full text
    We show that the effectiveness of transaction taxes depends on the market microstructure. Within our model, heterogeneous traders use a blend of technical and fundamental trading strategies to determine their orders. In addition, they may turn inactive if the profitability of trading decreases. We find that in a continuous double auction market the imposition of a transaction tax is not likely to stabilize financial markets since a reduction in market liquidity amplifies the average price impact of a given order. In a dealership market, however, abundant liquidity is provided by specialists and thus a transaction tax may reduce volatility by crowding out speculative orders.transaction tax; Tobin tax; microstructures; agent-based models; liquidity

    Informetrics on M. N. Srinivas

    No full text
    M. N. Srinivas, the well known sociologist is widely recognised as architect of modern Indian sociology and social anthropology. His publications have been analysed by year, domain, authorship pattern, channels of communication used. Keywords, etc. The results indicate that the papers published by him are of a nature that qualify him to be a 'role model' for the younger generations to emulate. By the end of 1995, Srinivas had to his credit 144 papers which, included 33 broad papers in sociology and anthropology; 18 papers in social change; 28 papers in village studies; 12 papers on religion; 17 papers on caste and 36 papers of general popular interest. The periods 1958-61 and 1974-77, when Srinivas was 38-41 and 58-61 years old. were his most productive periods with highest publication activity
    corecore