Global Tax Revolution: The Rise of Tax Competition and the Battle to Defend It

This book explores one of the most dynamic and exciting aspects of globalization—international tax competition. With rising mobility and soaring capital flows, individuals and businesses are gaining freedom to work and invest in nations with lower tax rates. That freedom is pressuring governments to cut taxes on income, investment, and wealth.

In Global Tax Revolution, Chris Edwards and Daniel Mitchell chronicle tax reforms around the world in recent decades. They describe the dramatic business tax cuts of Ireland, the flight of successful people from high-tax France, and the introduction of simple “flat taxes” in more than two dozen nations.

Like other aspects of globalization, tax competition is generating intense political opposition. Numerous governments and international organizations are fighting to restrict tax cuts. Edwards and Mitchell challenge those efforts, arguing that tax competition is helping to advance prosperity, expand human rights, and rein in bloated governments.

The authors argue that the U.S. economy can be revitalized by embracing competition and overhauling the federal tax code. They discuss how current tax rules suppress wages and investment and describe the tax changes needed for workers and businesses to succeed in the fast-paced global economy. Rather than idly complaining about jobs and capital moving offshore, this book argues that policymakers need to embrace major tax reforms to ensure rising standards of living for Americans in the years ahead.

“Superb, well-written, eye-opening survey of the exciting worldwide movement to cut individual and business taxes. The flat tax, in particular, is gaining momentum, especially in Central and Eastern Europe. Depressingly, the United States, once the leader in tax cutting, is now lagging. This masterpiece may not wake up myopic Washington, but it will arouse the American people to demand action!”
—STEVE FORBES,
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF FORBES MAGAZINE

“Globalization is confronting governments with an increasingly competitive fiscal environment. Investors now have many choices among competing country tax climates. Global Tax Revolution shows that countries ignore this reality at their peril.”
—VERNON L. SMITH,
NOBEL LAUREATE IN ECONOMICS

“This well-researched book provides a strong and clear message about the need for tax reform in an era of rising globalization. Taxpayers, business leaders, policy experts, and members of Congress need to read this book.”
—EDWARD C. PRESCOTT,
NOBEL LAUREATE IN ECONOMICS

“Chris Edwards and Dan Mitchell take the reader on a fascinating world tour of tax reforms since the 1980s and make a strong case that U.S. policymakers need to follow the lead of the two dozen nations that have adopted simple, pro-growth flat tax systems.”
—ALVIN RABUSHKA,
SENIOR FELLOW, HOOVER INSTITUTION AT STANFORD UNIVERSITY, AND CO-AUTHOR OF THE FLAT TAX

“Edwards and Mitchell provide a warning to Americans that their future prosperity rests on leadership in tax reform and strong support of international tax competition.”
—WALTER E. WILLIAMS,
PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS, GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY

“Global Tax Revolution reveals how dramatic tax reforms are being implemented abroad thanks to foreign leaders who recognize that pro-growth policies keep the entrepreneurial geese that lay the golden eggs of prosperity from flying away.”
—DICK ARMEY,
CHAIRMAN OF FREEDOMWORKS AND FORMER MAJORITY LEADER OF THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

CHRIS EDWARDS is director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute and author of Downsizing the Federal Government.

DANIEL J. MITCHELL is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and author of The Flat Tax: Freedom, Fairness, Jobs, and Growth.