Taxing Foreign Direct Investment in a Non-Cooperative Setting: Contributions by Alex Easson

Abstract

This chapter reviews contributions by the late Alex Easson to the ongoing debate regarding optimal tax laws and policies for foreign direct investment. A theme running through many of Easson's works is that, to discern this optimal policy with respect to taxing foreign direct investment in a non-cooperative setting, tax law scholars should integrate both the underlying economic theories and the relevant political, historical, cultural, or other realities. In particular, Easson focused on how to design cross-border investment tax laws that take into account a tax authority's human and other resources.

Keywords: tax, international tax, investments, tax law design