The financial transaction tax: an ANOVA assessment of selected EU countries

Abstract

Research background: There are various forms of fiscal taxation of the financial assets. In recent times, the discussion about financial transaction tax in the EU is associated with finding the solution to problems due to great financial crisis. The European Commission has made some efforts to strengthen capital regulation and it has adopted the Directive about implementing enhanced cooperation in the field of financial transaction tax, where it analyzed options and impacts of FTT according to those countries which have already implemented similar transaction taxes in their national legislatives. Purpose of the article: Our aim is to find out the economic relationship between FTT and economic growth and to analyze the effect of FTT within selected EU countries. Methods: In this paper, we will analyze the banking environment in the EU area, and we emphasize the correlation between tax policy and economic growth. We will test FTT through three-way mixed-effects ANOVA, and analyze three Member states, Belgium, Ireland and the United Kingdom, which have very active attitude to implementation of FTT within other EU countries. Findings & Value added: We are interested in: (1) testing the relationship between the financial transaction tax (FTT) and economic growth (GDP); and (2) to verify the hypothesis that FTT could improve GDP growth in a country. We assume that if a country has adopted FTT in its tax system, then it will lead to a significant GDP growth, and so it could lead to financial market improvement after the crisis. Our results have shown that an increase in FTT volume would lead only to a negligible increase in the economic growth.