Course info

The course focuses on the rise and expansion of the modern tax state in Europe and in the US after 1914. By modern tax state, we mean a state whose revenue depends primarily on “modern” broad-based taxes such as personal income tax, corporate income tax, social security contributions, general sales tax or value added tax. The concept has also a quantitative dimension: until WWI, virtually no state was collecting revenue for more than 10 per cent of its national income, and some states (mostly in lower-income countries) still today oscillate around that level. In 2020 across OECD countries, instead, tax revenue averaged 33.5 per cent, with a peak above 45 per cent in the case of Denmark and France.  How can we explain such a sharp increase? Why some countries have moved towards higher levels of state intervention while others have not? What were the consequences of such a change with respect to the role the state plays within society (social spending, welfare, economic growth)?