NATIONAL AUTHONOMY, REGIONAL INTEGRATION AND GLOBAL PUBLIC GOODS: THE DEBATE ON THE TOBIN TAX (1978-2009)

At the end of the Seventies, a new consensus was taking the lead in economic theory on the perfect rationality of agents, the ineffectiveness of economic policies and, therefore, on the possibility to sustain experiments of monetary integration worldwide. Among the few Authors who still believed in the effectiveness of active national monetary and fiscal policies, James Tobin proposed the introduction of "sand in the wheels" of international finance, in order to reduce speculative capital flows and enhance national autonomy in economic policy choices. For this reason, the literature has usually contrasted the original proposal of a Tobin Tax to any hypothesis of supra-national economic and monetary integration. Nevertheless, as it was also designed to provide a global public good, namely enhanced financial stability, it may also cooperate with regional integration processes worldwide. The paper aims at reviewing the debate on the Tobin Tax in the literature concerning European and international monetary integration processes and at verifying the past evolution and future perspectives of similar proposals.