John Chown
NationalityBritish
Alma materGordonstoun and Selwyn College, Cambridge
Occupation(s)Monetary economist and international tax specialist[1]
AwardsAdam Smith Prize
Websitejohnchown.co.uk

John Chown is a monetary economist in the United Kingdom who made his career as an international tax specialist with particular reference to currency and financial markets. Since retiring from Chown Dewhurst LLP[2][3] he has remained very active, taking part in discussions on public policy issues with special reference to the development of capital markets and encouragement of inward investment into transitional and emerging economies, the future of the Eurozone, and advising on.[4] He also works closely with a group advising on the financing of high-tech, `disruptive’ start-ups.

Early life and education

Chown was educated at Gordonstoun and Selwyn College, Cambridge, where he won the Adam Smith Prize for a dissertation on fixed versus floating exchange rates, awarded the Wrenbury Scholarship as top of his year, is now an Honorary Fellow of the College. He served for many years on the Investment Committee.[5]

Career

In 1962, Chown founded his tax advisory company, J F Chown & Company Limited, now Chown Dewhurst LLP. He has been a public policy adviser to Conservative Chancellors and Shadow Chancellors,[6] commenting on European tax harmonisation proposals and visiting Canada, Australia, New Zealand as an international adviser on their respective tax reforms. He was active in the Know How Fund, which provided market and taxation advice to transitional countries after the collapse of Communism, he continued to do advisory work in Russia, including a World Bank project of the development of capital markets and has worked, with Jackie Newbury, on projects in Mongolia and Thailand and has been on many City of London missions.

Chown is a co-founder of the Institute for Fiscal Studies[7][8] and remains on the Committee of the International Tax Specialist Group, is active in the Political Economy Club, the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation, the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum, and several other Think Tanks.

He is Honorary Financial Adviser to the Royal Society of Musicians (and now an `Honorary Member’) and is still very active with the London Handel Society and other musical charities.

Writings

Chown wrote several books on tax policy, is the author of “A History of Monetary Unions” (Routledge 2003),[9][10] and has contributed a chapter, “Lessons of Monetary History”, to the IEA study, “The Euro – the Beginning, the Middle .. and the End?” (April 2013) and reviewed for Central Banking, Harold James “Making the European Monetary Union” (February 2013).

Two articles and several other reviews in Central Banking deal more generally with the financial crisis. In November 2009, he wrote an article “Towards a New Banking System! In which he commented briefly on the problems arising from bad practices in the banking system. The editor invited him to follow up on this in “Conflicts of Interest and System Risk”, Central Banking, November 2010, discusses improper (and therefore unsustainable) profits made by banks, and their potential threat to financial stability, was a follow-up to an earlier article in November 2009, “Towards a New Banking System”. Several subsequent book reviews followed up on his point. He has contributed chapters to more than fifteen books on the topics of tax reform and monetary policy.

Chown, shocked by the way in which the banks were making very substantial hidden profits out of Initial Public Offerings by exploiting conflicts of interest, he made major campaigns and published “End to Underwriting: How the Coalition can avoid being Ripped Off!”, Centre for Policy Studies, August, 2011. When the EU proposed a Financial Transactions Tax (the Tobin Tax), Chown was invited to give evidence to the House of Lords Committee in late 2011[11] and followed this with a publication “Time To Bin The Tobin Tax” Centre for Policy Studies, April 2012.

2019

2018

2017

Books

References

  1. ^ Hakeem Kolapo Fujah (2004). Breathing Thoughtfully. Trafford Publishing. pp. 3–. ISBN 978-1-4120-2000-8.
  2. ^ "Government warned of valuation risk to bank sale". Public Finance.
  3. ^ Baguley, Darren (6 August 2013). "Taxed beyond all reason". CRN Magazine.
  4. ^ Adrian Williamson (17 February 2015). Conservative Economic Policymaking and the Birth of Thatcherism, 1964–1979. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 294–. ISBN 978-1-137-46027-1.
  5. ^ "Selwyn College Calendar 2014 – 2015". Issuu.
  6. ^ "Recent published flat tax proposals". Tax Matters, UK Tax Reform Commission, 2006.
  7. ^ "Higher taxes could drive more Brits abroad". A Place in the Sun.
  8. ^ Akam, Simon (15 March 2016). "The British umpire: how the IFS became the most influential voice in the economic debate". The Guardian.
  9. ^ "A History of Monetary Unions". Economic History Association.
  10. ^ "BOOK REVIEWS". Australian Economic History Review. 45: 96–113. 2005. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8446.2005.00129.x.
  11. ^ "Towards a Financial Transactions Tax?" – European Union Committee. List of witnesses
  12. ^ Anirban Biswas (1 January 2007). Money and Markets from Pre-colonial to Colonial India. Aakar Books. pp. 75–. ISBN 978-81-89833-20-6.
  13. ^ Kole, Karen V. "Book Review: Tax Efficient Forex Management". Northwestern Journal of International Law and Business, Volume 7 Issue 3, via Scholarly Commons, Northwestern University.
  14. ^ "Book Reviews". 11 Nw. J. Int'l L. & Bus. 165 (1990–1991) Index to Volume 6–10

External links

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