The aim of this class is to discuss international tax policy at a high but accessible level, with frequent reliance on informal economic reasoning.

The first two days will be spent discussing issues that are raised in the three attached articles. Of these articles, one was published in 2016 and another in 2021, while the third is an early draft of forthcoming work. Accordingly some of the discussion - for the first article in particular - is no longer entirely up to date. The aim will be, not to review the articles' content as such, but rather to stimulate our own discussion of various of the topics that they raise - for example, thinking about countries' self-interest with regard to inbound and outbound taxation, and assessing the relevance of two-level games to ongoing international tax politics at the national and/or EU and/or OECD level.

On the last two days, the students will offer short presentations based on the papers that they plan to write. The class size will determine the length of each presentation, but they most likely will be in the range of 10 to 15 minutes. The papers themselves will not be due until some time after the class ends. (We can discuss possible dates early in the first class.)

The students’ papers provide a vehicle for evaluating their gain of competencies.The lectures, feedback on the presentations, and feedback on the papers should enable the students to improve their knowledge and analytical skills with regard to the expected learning outcomes.

Students get material in advance and will prepare for the lecture. Professors select topics for presentations, which are given by the students during the lectures. Further methods include theoretical inputs and discussions. After the lecture the students may issue papers or participate in an exam.

All students admitted to the DIBT, the PhD in International Business Taxation, are able to participate in this lecture.