Corporate Flat Tax Reforms and Businesses' Location Choices. Evidence from Switzerland

Sergio Galletta and Agustin Redonda

IdEP Economic Papers from USI Università della Svizzera italiana

Abstract: Profit taxation affects corporate investment decisions through several channels. This paper focuses on the impact of corporate income flat tax reforms on businesses' location choices. Since 1990, Swiss states (cantons) have been switching from a graduated to a flat tax rate scheme on profits. The paper assesses the effects of such a reform on the number of establishments by computing a difference-in-differences estimation. Our results show a negative impact on the number of firms in a given jurisdiction. Interestingly, the effect is considerably larger for riskier firms, suggesting the presence of an insurance effect from progressive taxation for risk-averse entrepreneurs.

Keywords: Corporate taxes; Business location; Flat-tax; Tax reform; Progressive taxation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H25 H32 H71 R3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 31 pages
Date: 2016-01-18
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-acc, nep-eur, nep-pbe, nep-pub and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:lug:wpidep:1602

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