PhD student at the Bielefeld Graduate School in History and Sociology, University of Bielefeld. Political scientist interested in political economy, taxation and inequality.
The European sovereign debt crisis represents an interesting opportunity to investigate the react... more The European sovereign debt crisis represents an interesting opportunity to investigate the reaction of the European Central Bank as a crisis fighting institution and the importance of central bank personalities in policy execution. Accordingly, this paper aims at investigating to what extent the policy-making of the ECB during the crisis has been influenced by Trichet's and Draghi's different personalities. Based on Friedman's hypothesis that "accidents of personality" have a great impact on the functioning of a rulebased institution, we find that the clear differences in policy-making between Trichet and Draghi can be explained by specific features of their respective personalities. Institutions matter, but so do personalities.
This contribution discusses the possibility of tax cooperation from a European perspective. Resea... more This contribution discusses the possibility of tax cooperation from a European perspective. Research on tax cooperation focuses on the resistance of powerful states or the failed efforts of the OECD and emphasizes the unlikelihood of cooperation in tax matters. Important developments from the EU tend to be overlooked. This paper closes this gap by providing a detailed account of EU corporate tax policy and reconstructing the evolution of this policy field over a period of 15 years. The study is based on a chronological review of EU corporate tax provisions since 2003 and a quantitative content analysis of 936 documents from the Commission and the Council. It shows that EU corporate tax policy has undergone a significant change, which is characterized by an intensification of the regulatory efforts against corporate tax avoidance and the identification of new problems and solutions along the ideas of fairness and transparency. Contrary to conventional scholarship, those findings suggest that tax cooperation is becoming feasible within the EU, at least in the field of corporate taxation.
dms – der moderne staat – Zeitschrift für Public Policy, Recht und Management
Der Beitrag thematisiert die distributiven und regulatorischen wirtschaftspolitischen Maßnahmen d... more Der Beitrag thematisiert die distributiven und regulatorischen wirtschaftspolitischen Maßnahmen der deutschen Bundesregierung ab dem Frühjahr 2020 im Zeichen der Covid-19-Pandemie. Die Anforderung an die Politik besteht in der gleichzeitigen Lösung der kurzfristigen, pandemiebedingten und der langfristigen, strukturell bedingten ökonomischen Probleme. Die Fallstudie rekonstruiert die Policies der deutschen Bundesregierung in den beiden, derzeit ersichtlichen Phasen. Anschließend wird die staatliche Politik erklärt durch (1) das Zusammenwirken der exekutiven Politics von Bund und Ländern, in der neben Union und SPD auch Bündnisgrüne, Linke und FDP als Mitregenten eingebunden sind, und (2) die Rechtfertigung der Maßnahmen durch die erheblichen ökonomischen Folgen. Die Krisen- und Konjunkturpolitik bewegt sich zudem auch im Pfad eines vorherigen – auch (aber nicht nur) durch die Krisenerfahrungen 2008/09 induzierten – wirtschaftspolitischen Paradigmenwandels und wird durch modernisiert...
Handbook on the Politics of Taxation (ed. L. Hakelberg and L. Seelkopf), 2021
While taxation is generally considered a matter of national sovereignty, the power to tax of the ... more While taxation is generally considered a matter of national sovereignty, the power to tax of the Member States of the European Union (EU) is increasingly constrained by the EU. Against this backdrop, the chapter investigates the politics of taxation in the EU. Starting with a historical overview, it shows that the initial legal setting of the EU has enabled certain harmonization of taxes, in particular in the area of value-added tax (VAT), but also hampered meaningful tax coordination on the road to the EU’s internal market. The EU and its Member States appear to be trapped: past decision-making has led to tax distortions, harmful tax competition and increased problems of tax evasion and avoidance. At the same time, institutional, judicial and political obstacles hinder agreement on how to tackle these problems. The chapter then reviews different strands of literature that find explanations for both the lack of tax harmonization and successful instances of coordination. Explanatory factors include the heterogeneity of national preferences, the powers of the ECJ and the Treaties, as well as the role of changing narratives and non-governmental organisations. As the pace of legislative change in the field of corporate taxation has increased dramatically since the financial crisis, the chapter ends by discussing current developments, such as the politicization of tax issues in (and outside) the EU, the influence of the global context and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
EU corporate tax policy has long consisted solely in eliminating fiscal barriers. This changed af... more EU corporate tax policy has long consisted solely in eliminating fiscal barriers. This changed after the financial and Eurozone crises when the European Commission proposed ‘market-correcting’ provisions to increase tax transparency and ‘fairness’, which were partially adopted by the Council. Analyses of EU responses to the crisis have largely ignored taxation issues. This article fills this gap and explains the substantive re-orientation of EU corporate tax policy through the concept of politicization. Based on 19 expert interviews, it details the politicization process of corporate taxation resulting from changes in global governance, media tax scandals, and the work of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Through the politicization dynamic, new institutional and discursive opportunities were exploited by the European Commission, Parliament and NGOs to induce policy change. We explore this reciprocal interaction between social forces and supranational actors to demonstrate that ‘politicization at the top’ can facilitate a more progressive deepening of European integration.
This paper discusses the recent initiatives of the EU against tax evasion and tax avoidance from ... more This paper discusses the recent initiatives of the EU against tax evasion and tax avoidance from a Multiple Streams perspective. By combining a chronological review of EU tax provisions with a quantitative content analysis of official EU documents, I show how both EU corporate tax policy and the way it is framed have changed over time: From market‐enhancing toward market‐regulating tax measures that explicitly address corporate tax avoidance. Contrary to what is often assumed, findings show that the crucial window of opportunity did not stem from the financial and Eurozone crisis, but rather from the accumulation of tax scandals since 2013. Furthermore, my analysis differentiates between the entrepreneurship of the Commission as a whole and the individual entrepreneurship of single personalities to better understand the dynamics that lead to policy change in the EU.
This contribution discusses the possibility of tax cooperation from a European perspective. Resea... more This contribution discusses the possibility of tax cooperation from a European perspective. Research on tax cooperation focuses on the resistance of powerful states or the failed efforts of the OECD and emphasizes the unlikelihood of cooperation in tax matters. Important developments from the EU tend to be overlooked. This paper closes this gap by providing a detailed account of EU corporate tax policy and reconstructing the evolution of this policy field over a period of 15 years. The study is based on a chronological review of EU corporate tax provisions since 2003 and a quantitative content analysis of 936 documents from the Commission and the Council. It shows that EU corporate tax policy has undergone a significant change, which is characterized by an intensification of the regulatory efforts against corporate tax avoidance and the identification of new problems and solutions along the ideas of fairness and transparency. Contrary to conventional scholarship, those findings suggest that tax cooperation is becoming feasible within the EU, at least in the field of corporate taxation.
The European sovereign debt crisis represents an interesting opportunity to investigate the react... more The European sovereign debt crisis represents an interesting opportunity to investigate the reaction of the European Central Bank as a crisis fighting institution and the importance of central bank personalities in policy execution. Accordingly, this paper aims at investigating to what extent the policy-making of the ECB during the crisis has been influenced by Trichet’s and Draghi’s different personalities. Based on Friedman’s hypothesis that “accidents of personality” have a great impact on the functioning of a rulebased institution, we find that the clear differences in policy-making between Trichet and Draghi can be explained by specific features of their respective personalities. Institutions matter, but so do personalities.
The European sovereign debt crisis represents an interesting opportunity to investigate the react... more The European sovereign debt crisis represents an interesting opportunity to investigate the reaction of the European Central Bank as a crisis fighting institution and the importance of central bank personalities in policy execution. Accordingly, this paper aims at investigating to what extent the policy-making of the ECB during the crisis has been influenced by Trichet's and Draghi's different personalities. Based on Friedman's hypothesis that "accidents of personality" have a great impact on the functioning of a rulebased institution, we find that the clear differences in policy-making between Trichet and Draghi can be explained by specific features of their respective personalities. Institutions matter, but so do personalities.
This contribution discusses the possibility of tax cooperation from a European perspective. Resea... more This contribution discusses the possibility of tax cooperation from a European perspective. Research on tax cooperation focuses on the resistance of powerful states or the failed efforts of the OECD and emphasizes the unlikelihood of cooperation in tax matters. Important developments from the EU tend to be overlooked. This paper closes this gap by providing a detailed account of EU corporate tax policy and reconstructing the evolution of this policy field over a period of 15 years. The study is based on a chronological review of EU corporate tax provisions since 2003 and a quantitative content analysis of 936 documents from the Commission and the Council. It shows that EU corporate tax policy has undergone a significant change, which is characterized by an intensification of the regulatory efforts against corporate tax avoidance and the identification of new problems and solutions along the ideas of fairness and transparency. Contrary to conventional scholarship, those findings suggest that tax cooperation is becoming feasible within the EU, at least in the field of corporate taxation.
dms – der moderne staat – Zeitschrift für Public Policy, Recht und Management
Der Beitrag thematisiert die distributiven und regulatorischen wirtschaftspolitischen Maßnahmen d... more Der Beitrag thematisiert die distributiven und regulatorischen wirtschaftspolitischen Maßnahmen der deutschen Bundesregierung ab dem Frühjahr 2020 im Zeichen der Covid-19-Pandemie. Die Anforderung an die Politik besteht in der gleichzeitigen Lösung der kurzfristigen, pandemiebedingten und der langfristigen, strukturell bedingten ökonomischen Probleme. Die Fallstudie rekonstruiert die Policies der deutschen Bundesregierung in den beiden, derzeit ersichtlichen Phasen. Anschließend wird die staatliche Politik erklärt durch (1) das Zusammenwirken der exekutiven Politics von Bund und Ländern, in der neben Union und SPD auch Bündnisgrüne, Linke und FDP als Mitregenten eingebunden sind, und (2) die Rechtfertigung der Maßnahmen durch die erheblichen ökonomischen Folgen. Die Krisen- und Konjunkturpolitik bewegt sich zudem auch im Pfad eines vorherigen – auch (aber nicht nur) durch die Krisenerfahrungen 2008/09 induzierten – wirtschaftspolitischen Paradigmenwandels und wird durch modernisiert...
Handbook on the Politics of Taxation (ed. L. Hakelberg and L. Seelkopf), 2021
While taxation is generally considered a matter of national sovereignty, the power to tax of the ... more While taxation is generally considered a matter of national sovereignty, the power to tax of the Member States of the European Union (EU) is increasingly constrained by the EU. Against this backdrop, the chapter investigates the politics of taxation in the EU. Starting with a historical overview, it shows that the initial legal setting of the EU has enabled certain harmonization of taxes, in particular in the area of value-added tax (VAT), but also hampered meaningful tax coordination on the road to the EU’s internal market. The EU and its Member States appear to be trapped: past decision-making has led to tax distortions, harmful tax competition and increased problems of tax evasion and avoidance. At the same time, institutional, judicial and political obstacles hinder agreement on how to tackle these problems. The chapter then reviews different strands of literature that find explanations for both the lack of tax harmonization and successful instances of coordination. Explanatory factors include the heterogeneity of national preferences, the powers of the ECJ and the Treaties, as well as the role of changing narratives and non-governmental organisations. As the pace of legislative change in the field of corporate taxation has increased dramatically since the financial crisis, the chapter ends by discussing current developments, such as the politicization of tax issues in (and outside) the EU, the influence of the global context and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
EU corporate tax policy has long consisted solely in eliminating fiscal barriers. This changed af... more EU corporate tax policy has long consisted solely in eliminating fiscal barriers. This changed after the financial and Eurozone crises when the European Commission proposed ‘market-correcting’ provisions to increase tax transparency and ‘fairness’, which were partially adopted by the Council. Analyses of EU responses to the crisis have largely ignored taxation issues. This article fills this gap and explains the substantive re-orientation of EU corporate tax policy through the concept of politicization. Based on 19 expert interviews, it details the politicization process of corporate taxation resulting from changes in global governance, media tax scandals, and the work of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Through the politicization dynamic, new institutional and discursive opportunities were exploited by the European Commission, Parliament and NGOs to induce policy change. We explore this reciprocal interaction between social forces and supranational actors to demonstrate that ‘politicization at the top’ can facilitate a more progressive deepening of European integration.
This paper discusses the recent initiatives of the EU against tax evasion and tax avoidance from ... more This paper discusses the recent initiatives of the EU against tax evasion and tax avoidance from a Multiple Streams perspective. By combining a chronological review of EU tax provisions with a quantitative content analysis of official EU documents, I show how both EU corporate tax policy and the way it is framed have changed over time: From market‐enhancing toward market‐regulating tax measures that explicitly address corporate tax avoidance. Contrary to what is often assumed, findings show that the crucial window of opportunity did not stem from the financial and Eurozone crisis, but rather from the accumulation of tax scandals since 2013. Furthermore, my analysis differentiates between the entrepreneurship of the Commission as a whole and the individual entrepreneurship of single personalities to better understand the dynamics that lead to policy change in the EU.
This contribution discusses the possibility of tax cooperation from a European perspective. Resea... more This contribution discusses the possibility of tax cooperation from a European perspective. Research on tax cooperation focuses on the resistance of powerful states or the failed efforts of the OECD and emphasizes the unlikelihood of cooperation in tax matters. Important developments from the EU tend to be overlooked. This paper closes this gap by providing a detailed account of EU corporate tax policy and reconstructing the evolution of this policy field over a period of 15 years. The study is based on a chronological review of EU corporate tax provisions since 2003 and a quantitative content analysis of 936 documents from the Commission and the Council. It shows that EU corporate tax policy has undergone a significant change, which is characterized by an intensification of the regulatory efforts against corporate tax avoidance and the identification of new problems and solutions along the ideas of fairness and transparency. Contrary to conventional scholarship, those findings suggest that tax cooperation is becoming feasible within the EU, at least in the field of corporate taxation.
The European sovereign debt crisis represents an interesting opportunity to investigate the react... more The European sovereign debt crisis represents an interesting opportunity to investigate the reaction of the European Central Bank as a crisis fighting institution and the importance of central bank personalities in policy execution. Accordingly, this paper aims at investigating to what extent the policy-making of the ECB during the crisis has been influenced by Trichet’s and Draghi’s different personalities. Based on Friedman’s hypothesis that “accidents of personality” have a great impact on the functioning of a rulebased institution, we find that the clear differences in policy-making between Trichet and Draghi can be explained by specific features of their respective personalities. Institutions matter, but so do personalities.
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