Is Tax Competition Harmful? (European Policy Forum, 29 Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5LP, 0171-839 7565, £ 15). Presented as a contribution to the current debate about taxation in Europe, this report by economist Keith Marsden is a thorough disappointment. Marsden draws heavily on his earlier work as an economist for the World Bank to support his claim that low taxes are "still the best economic cure". But how is his 20-year-old data on developing world countries supposed to shed light on the issues involved in present-day Europe? To back up his thesis that tax competition is what Europe needs, Marsden comes up with truly obscure figures, for example in his insistence that income distribution in Britain is "remarkably equal" and better than Sweden's. Instead of providing sober analysis to clarify an emotionally charged debate, Marsden has produced a heavily biased polemical pamphlet that yearns for the rosy days of Ronald and Maggie and makes noises about a Continental anti-British conspiracy.

Social Enterprise Zones: building innovation into regeneration (Joseph Rowntree Foundation, The Homestead, 40 Water End, York YO30 6WP, 01904 629241, £12.95). David Robinson, Kathryn Dunn and Scott Ballintyne outline the basics of Social Enterprise Zones (SEZs), where a consortium of public, private and voluntary agencies team up to create an "enabling environment" in areas of "long-term multiple deprivation". In line with Blairite ideas, SEZs are a further step away from the nanny state and draw on the untapped potential of deprived communities. The buzzwords are "participation" and "empowerment"; accepted rules are to be challenged if these get in the way of regeneration and impede the trial of new ideas. Despite the high-flying rhetoric of the report, SEZs are hardly a magic bullet for poverty relief. The authors cite a number of successful initiatives from all over the world, but SEZs' long gestation period will make their application on a large scale difficult in practice.

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