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Why the Tobin Tax Can Be Stabilizing

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  • Korkut Erturk

Abstract

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.

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  • Korkut Erturk, 2002. "Why the Tobin Tax Can Be Stabilizing," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_366, Levy Economics Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_366
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. De Long, J Bradford, et al, 1990. "Positive Feedback Investment Strategies and Destabilizing Rational Speculation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(2), pages 379-395, June.
    2. Stephany Griffith-Jones, 1998. "Global Capital Flows," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-26912-9.
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    Cited by:

    1. Machiko Nissanke, 2003. "Revenue Potential of the Currency Transaction Tax for Development Finance: A Critical Appraisal," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2003-81, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. Yates Nicholas A, 2009. "Revisiting the Tobin Tax, in the Context of Development and the Financial Crisis," The Law and Development Review, De Gruyter, vol. 2(1), pages 257-282, November.
    3. Mustafa Erdogdu & Hale Balseven, 2006. "How Effective is the Tobin Tax in Coping with Financial Volatility?," Anadolu University Journal of Social Sciences, Anadolu University, vol. 6(1), pages 107-128, June.

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