A growing empirical literature has documented significant profit shifting activities by multinationals. This paper looks at the impact of such profit shifting on real activity and tax competition. Real activity can be affected as profit shifting changes-and theoretically most likely reduces-the...

Heterogeneous firm productivity seems to provide an argument for governments to pursue `pick-the-winner' strategies by subsidizing highly productive firms more, or taxing them less, than their less productive counterparts. We appraise this argument by studying the optimal choice of effective tax...

Does globalization restrict the leeway for national budgetary policy? With the help of cluster and discriminant analysis this study provides evidence on the basis of the experience of OECD countries since the 1970s. Four budgetary dimensions are included in the analysis: tax structure,...

Tax competition arguments suggest that governements that operate in an open economy (such as local governments) should not and will not rely on non-benefit taxes, such as the income tax. Yet we observe reliance on income taxes by local governments in many countries, and such reliance changes...

This paper studies the effects of political factors, mainly partisanship, on corporate taxes in the past 30 years - a period of intensifying competitive pressure in Europe. Extending the Zodrow-Mieszkowski model by decision-makers who have ideological preferences yields the hypothesis that...

Der vorliegende Aufsatz untersucht unter anderem die Effekte zweier klassischer Prinzipien der internationalen Kapitalbesteuerung auf die Gerechtigkeit und die Effizienz: das Bestimmungslandund das Ursprungslandprinzip. Weiterhin werden die Harmonisierungs- und die Steuerwettbewerbspolitik in...

Die Transformationsländer Mittel- und Osteuropas (MOE) stecken in der Zwickmühle. Einerseits zwingt der Wettkampf um international knappes Kapital möglicherweise zu Steuersenkungen, die zu Einnahmeausfällen führen. Andererseits werden gerade in Zeiten der Transformation staatliche Einnahmen...

This paper estimates Nash-type fiscal reaction functions for European governments competing for revenue from diesel excises. It appears that European governments strategically set their excise levels by responding to their neighbors’ tax rates. This provides evidence for the presence of tax...

This paper analyzes the choice of taxes and international information exchange by governments in a capital tax competition model. We explain situations where countries can choose tax rates on tax savings income and exchange information about the domestic savings of foreigners, implying that the...

According to the disciplining hypothesis, globalization restrains governments by inducing increased budgetary pressure. As a consequence, governments shift their expenditures in favour of transfers and subsidies and away from capital expenditures. This expenditure shift is potentially enhanced...