From Keynes's proposition to the robin hood tax: Historical development and the current situation of the financial transaction taxes

Abstract

Along with the overthrow of the Bretton Woods system in the early 1970s, financial liberalization process started to be active in the whole world. The developing countries joined in the process by removing the obstacles on the capital flows in the 1980s. However, this process triggered subsequent crises and had destructive effects in these countries. Accordingly, the thought of excising the speculative capital movements, which were developed by J. Tobin through taking the idea of excising of security transactions of J.M. Keynes, came forward again. Then the feasible alternatives as two-staged Tobin tax of P.B. Spahn were suggested. After 2008 financial crisis, an implementation of financial transactions tax that has been drafted to be implemented across the EU has been brought to the agenda. In this chapter, it is aimed to discuss financial transaction taxes in the context of the European Union and Turkey from a historical view. © 2015, IGI Global. All rights reserved.