The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens Hardcover – 29 Sep 2015

Review

"Zucman's work on tax havens is the first serious economic research in this area. His evaluation of the share of global household wealth that is located in tax havens has become the standard in the profession. Most importantly, this is the first work offering credible estimates of the kind of economic sanctions that would make tax havens give up bank secrecy. The conclusions are powerful."--Thomas Piketty, author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century

Drawing on his recent pathbreaking research, Zucman offers a short, lively, and non-technical discussion of tax heavens. He presents the most rigorous measurement to date of the wealth hidden in tax heavens and proposes a clear and feasible set of recommendations to fight evasion through tax heavens and restore the ability of our democratic societies to tax their wealthiest residents in this globalized world. His recommendations are already having a significant policy impact. --Emmanuel Saez, University of California, Berkeley"

In this small, yet brilliant and tightly argued book, Zucman unravels the mechanisms of tax secrecy and evasion during the past century, an always lucrative activity but probably never as lucrative as it is today. The amounts involved are staggering: one out of every ten dollars of financial assets is hidden in tax havens. Zucman proposes a whole gamut of measures to put an end to this scourge, and indeed those who benefit from financial secrecy must feel uncomfortable to have to face such a formidable opponent. --Branko Milanovic, City University of New York"

Zucman s work on tax havens is the first serious economic research in this area. His evaluation of the share of global household wealth that is located in tax havens has become the standard in the profession. Most importantly, this is the first work offering credible estimates of the kind of economic sanctions that would make tax havens give up the financial opacity that allows them to prosper. The conclusions are powerful. --Thomas Piketty, author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century"

Offshore tax evasion is an outrage. Preventing it should be a major objective of international cooperation. This important book documents the problem and addresses what can be done. It is actionable economics at its finest. --Lawrence H. Summers, Harvard University"

Zucman has produced an important book, above all because of his effort to calculate the magnitude of the world s hidden wealth. . . . A strong virtue of Zucman s book is that it puts a bright spotlight on an area in which significant reforms might appeal to people who otherwise disagree on a great deal. You might believe that the tax system should be made more progressive, or you might believe that it should be made less so. But whatever you think, you are unlikely to support a situation in which trillions of dollars are hardly taxed at all.
--Cass Sunstein "New York Review of Books ""

About the Author

Gabriel Zucman is assistant professor at the London School of Economics. Teresa Lavender Fagan is a freelance translator living in Chicago; she has translated numerous books for the University of Chicago Press and other publishers.