Patent boxes design, patents location, and local R&D

Annette Alstadsæter, Salvador Barrios (), Gaëtan Nicodème, Agnieszka Maria Skonieczna and Antonio Vezzani ()

Economic Policy, 2018, vol. 33, issue 93, 131-177

Abstract: Maria Skonieczna, and Antonio Vezzani?>Patent boxes have been heavily debated for their role in corporate tax competition. This paper uses firm-level data for the period 2000–12 for the top 2,000 corporate research and development 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 and exploit a new and original dataset on patent box features such as the conditionality on performing research in the country or their coverage. We find that patent boxes have a considerable effect on attracting patents, mostly because of their favourable tax treatment. Patents with high earnings potential are particularly sensitive. Patent boxes with a large coverage also have stronger effects on the location of patents. We also analyse the impact of patent boxes and their tax advantages on local R&D activities and find that R&D development conditions tend to attenuate the dominant fiscal effect of patent boxes.

Keywords: corporate taxation; patent boxes; location; patents; R&D; nexus approach (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F21 F23 H25 H73 O31 O34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (39)

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Related works:
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)
Working Paper: Patent Boxes Design, Patents Location and Local R&D (2015)
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