Multiple streams, leaked opportunities, and entrepreneurship in the EU agenda against tax avoidance

This paper discusses the recent initiatives of the EU against tax evasion and tax avoidance from a Multiple Streams perspective. By combining a chronological review of EU tax provisions with a quantitative content analysis of official EU documents, I show how both EU corporate tax policy and the way it is framed have changed over time: From market-enhancing toward market-regulating tax measures that explicitly address corporate tax avoidance. Contrary to what is often assumed, findings show that the crucial window of opportunity did not stem from the financial and Eurozone crisis, but rather from the accumulation of tax scandals since 2013. Furthermore, my analysis differentiates between the entrepreneurship of the Commission as a whole and the individual entrepreneurship of single personalities to better understand the dynamics that lead to policy change in the EU.