Is international tax competition only about taxes? A market-based perspective

Céline Azémar, Rodolphe Desbordes and Ian Wooton (ian.wooton@strath.ac.uk)
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Céline Azémar: Adam Smith Business School - University of Glasgow, ESC [Rennes] - ESC Rennes School of Business
Rodolphe Desbordes: SKEMA Business School

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Abstract: This paper revisits tax competition among governments for foreign direct investment (FDI) by considering the role played by the economic dynamism of competitors on the setting of corporate tax rates (CTRs). Using a database with worldwide coverage over the period 1995–2014, we find that strong growth performance of neighbouring countries is associated with a lower CTR, especially in developed countries. This spatial effect is particularly manifest if competing countries are large and open to capital flows. These results appear to hold in most regions of the world and suggest that governments perceive foreign economic dynamism as a threat, leading them to reduce their CTRs to maintain their FDI attractiveness.

Keywords: Tax competition; Country size; Foreign direct investment; Developing countries; Free-trade zones; Spatial lag (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-fdg, nep-int and nep-pbe
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://rennes-sb.hal.science/hal-03163896
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Published in Journal of Comparative Economics, 2020, 48 (4), pp.891-912. ⟨10.1016/j.jce.2020.05.002⟩

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Journal Article: Is international tax competition only about taxes? A market-based perspective (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03163896

DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2020.05.002

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