Prato units

Tax Law as an Instrument of Social and Economic Policy: A Comparative Assessment

Leader: Neil Brooks

Offered: Prato: 8 May – 12 June

Synopsis:  In every country specific tax provisions, which have nothing to do with raising revenue or the technical tax system, are used as important policy instruments for achieving the government’s broad social and economic objectives.  The tax laws used to achieve these objectives are now widely known as tax expenditures.  Although found in the technical tax laws, they are not part of the technical tax system but instead represent implicit spending programs that governments put in their tax system in the form of tax exemptions, deductions or tax credits in order to reduce the tax liability of (and hence provide an implicit subsidy to) individuals or corporations who meet the conditions of these tax exemption and deductions.  These tax provisions are designed to encourage a wide range of objectives: homeownership, support for the voluntary sector, child care, environmentally responsible behavior, assistance for higher education, the encouragement of research and development, assistance to the film industry and other cultural activities, assistance for working low-income families, corporate capital investment, the competitiveness of a country’s multinationals, and assistance to less developed countries.  Almost every contemporary public policy issues is reflected in the tax expenditures embedded in tax systems around the world.

This seminar is not an examination of technical tax law and hence tax law is not a prerequisite for it.  Instead it is a comparative study of the discrete tax expenditures that every country (Australia, United States, the countries of the EU, and developing countries) embeds in its tax system in order to achieve law’s goals and values. The seminar will examine those specific issues and policies that are the subject of current interest to policy analysts and are of the most interest to the students in the seminar.              

Objectives: To make students familiar with the basic principles, theories and tools of legal and public policy analysis.  To develop an understanding of the law-in-action, in particular, the influence of culture, prevailing ideologies, the power of interest groups, the institutions of government, and other factors in explaining why legal systems differ and how these factors affect the possibilities of achieving law’s goals and values.  To provide students with an opportunity to deepen and enrich their skills and ability to write research papers.

Assessment: A short research paper (50%) and an exam (50%).

Contact Hours: Three 3-hour seminars a week for 4 weeks.

Prerequisites:None

Co-requisites:None