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Chapter 8 - Benefits and Costs of the IFF Targets for the Post-2015 Development Agenda

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 May 2018

Bjorn Lomborg
Affiliation:
Copenhagen Business School
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Summary

This chapter covers the important issue of illicit financial flows (IFF) and ways in which they may be addressed. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) target to curtail IFFs (16.4) currently has no defined indicators. Discussions are ongoing, but there is a risk that policy focus is lost. The proposal made here is for a set of three indicators which offer clear policy prioritization, and are likely to exhibit very high benefit-cost ratios. We propose three sub-targets that are more precise than the SDG target 16.4, and provide a much better degree of accuracy, measurability and accountability. For each of the three proposed sub-targets, there is currently insufficient evidence to provide precise cost-benefit analyses. However, available data indicate that in even the most conservative scenarios, they are likely to exhibit high ratios of benefit to cost. The targets are: i. Reduce to zero the legal persons and arrangements for which beneficial ownership info is not publicly available; ii. Reduce to zero the cross-border trade and investment relationships between jurisdictions for which there is no bilateral automatic exchange of tax information; and iii. Reduce to zero the number of multinational businesses that do not report publicly on a country-by-country basis.
Type
Chapter
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Prioritizing Development
A Cost Benefit Analysis of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals
, pp. 171 - 191
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2018

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