Estimating Illicit Financial Flows: A Critical Guide to the Data, Methodologies, and Findings

Introduction; Part I. Illicit Financial Flows; 1 History and overview of 'IFF'; Part II. Estimates of IFF Scale; 2 Trade estimates; 3 Capital wealth estimates; 4 International corporate tax avoidance; Part III. Proposals for IFF monitoring; 5 Beyond scale: Risk- and policy-based indicators; 6 New proposals for IFF indicators in the Sustainable Development Goals; 7 Conclusion

Alex Cobham is an economist and Chief Executive of the Tax Justice Network. He is also a founding member of the steering group of the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation, and of the technical advisory group for the Fair Tax Mark. His work focuses on illicit financial flows, effective taxation for development, and inequality. He has been a researcher at Oxford University, Christian Aid, Save the Children, and the Center for GlobalDevelopment, and has consulted widely, including for UNCTAD, the UN Economic Commission for Africa, DFID, and the World Bank. Petr Janský is Associate Professor in Economics, at Charles University, Prague. He has published widely on tax matters including corporate tax avoidance in particular, and engaged in policy analysis at each of Czech, EU and global levels. He has also consulted widely, including for the European Parliament, UNCTAD, the Tax Justice Network, and Oxfam. Current research collaborations include the European Commission's COFFERS programme ('Combating Fiscal Fraud and Empowering Regulators'),bringing together researchers from universities across the EU including the UK, Ireland, Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, and the Czech Republic, as well as Turkey.