Institute of Development Studies

1 April 2010

Each month we speak to two people working on development issues across the world, finding out a bit about their work and asking them 'What do you think is the big question that Development Studies needs to answer?'

Over the past year support has been growing for the idea of imposing a financial transaction tax - for example through the The Robin Hood Tax campaign in the UK. This April the International Monetary Fund will publish the results of their consultation on a financial sector tax, having spoken to tax experts, academics, labour unions, and civil society around the world.

In this programme we speak to:

• Stephany Griffith-Jones, Financial Markets Director at the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, Columbia University. We asked Stephany to explain more about financial transaction taxes and whether she thinks they're a good idea.
• Neil McCulloch, a Research Fellow in the Globalisation Team at IDS about his idea for an alternative financial transaction tax - the Panic Tax.

Image: Mark Chilvers/ Panos