Patent Boxes Design, Patents Location and Local R&D

Salvador Barrios (), Alstadsæter, Annette, Nicodème, Gaëtan, Agnieszka Skonieczna and Antonio Vezzani
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Annette Alstadsæter and Gaetan J.A. Nicodeme

No 10679, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: Patent boxes have been heavily debated for their role in corporate tax competition. This paper uses firm-level data for the period 2000-2011 for the top 2,000 corporate research and development (R&D) investors worldwide to consider the determinants of patent registration across a large sample of countries. Importantly, we disentangle the effects of corporate income taxation from the tax advantage of patent boxes. We also exploit a new and original dataset on patent box features such as the conditionality on performing research in the country, and their scope. We find that patent boxes have a considerable effect on attracting patents, mostly because of their favourable tax treatment, especially for high-quality patents. Patent boxes with a large scope in terms of tax base definition also have stronger effects on the location of patents. The size of the tax advantage offered through patent box regimes is found to deter local innovative activities, whereas R&D development conditions tend to attenuate this adverse effect. Our simulations show that, on average, countries imposing such development conditions tend to grant a tax advantage that is slightly greater than optimal from a local R&D impact perspective.

Keywords: Corporate taxation; Location; Nexus approach; Patent boxes; Patents; R&d (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F21 F23 H25 H73 O31 O34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ino, nep-sbm, nep-tid and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (38)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Patent boxes design, patents location, and local R&D (2018)
Working Paper: Patent boxes design, patents location, and local R&D (2018)
Working Paper: Patent boxes design, patents, location and local R&D (2015)
Working Paper: Patent Boxes Design, Patents Location and Local R&D (2015)
Working Paper: Patent Boxes Design, Patents Location and Local R&D (2015)
Working Paper: Patent Boxes Design, Patents Location and Local R&D (2015)
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