Offshore Finance and Small States - (International Political Economy) by W Vlcek (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

One path towards development taken by a number of small jurisdictions is the establishment of an offshore financial centre. This text analyses the actual economic contribution for several small Caribbean economies and the impact to continued operation arising from an international initiative for the exchange of taxpayer information.

Review Quotes

Endorsement for the current edition:

'Vlcek begins the task of tackling what must be the single greatest threat to Caribbean small state sovereignty - compliance enforcement on the part of the OECD on Caribbean OFCs, where their determined tax policies are reframed as harmful tax initiatives to woo international business. This is an offensive that dovetails with anti-money laundering imperatives and efforts to shut down terrorist finance networks, matters that increasingly hold the potential for imperilling US-Caribbean relations, and rendering illegitimate the offshore financial niche that defines the competitive advantage of some of these islands. 'Offshore Finance and Small States' introduces this discussion, encouraging the reader to pursue greater interrogation of the power-politics, values and regimes involved.'

'The specific address of how the provision of offshore financial services articulates with Caribbean small economies and the illiberal logic girding the OECD's harmful tax postulate, makes this book especially required reading for IR/IPE specialists and students, economists, and the wider professional community.'

Both Don D. Marshall, Senior Research Fellow in Political Science, University of the West Indies.

' [an] immaculately researched account the volume has originality and will be of interest to scholars engaged in the debates over globalisation, development& international finance.' Peter Clegg, Commonwealth and Comparative Politics

About the Author

WILLIAM VLCEK is Lecturer in International Politics with the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London. Following a nineteen-year career in government and private industry in the United States, he received his PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2006.