Profit maximisation and alternatives in oligopolies

This paper analyses oligopolies using the Cournot/Stackelberg framework, but allowing some firms to be pursueing aims other than profit maximisation. The existence of even a single output maximising firm can have dramatic effects on outputs, prices and welfare, even if such a firms faces additional costs.profit maximisation, oligopoly, non-profit organisations

What has been the tax competition experience of the past 20 years?

This paper describes tax reforms in OECD countries over the last 20 years and how they are related to tax competition. Both individual countries' reforms and multilateral initiatives and developments are covered. This is followed by an overview of the empirical evidence on tax competition. Our conclusion is that the evidence for some interdependence in tax setting behaviour is strong, although the exact process driving this remains unclear. While the most basic tax competition models fail to explain the development in OECD countries, there is more than one possible explanation for the reforms undertaken if more advanced models are considered. The multilateral initiatives that were implemented however do not seem to be related to resource-based tax competition, instead they are about taxing rights.Corporation tax

Measuring taxes on income from capital: evidence from the UK

This paper explores the properties of alternative measures of the taxation of income from capital, by applying them to data for the UK over the last thirty years. We consider several types of measures, reflecting both average and marginal rates.

Economic integration and redistribuitive taxation

We set up a simple political economy model where economic integration raises the profitability of multinational firms. In this setting redistributive taxation may rise following economic integration, if the effects of the widened income gap dominate the higher excess burden of the tax

Globalisation and the mix of wage and profit taxes

This paper analyses the development of the ratio of corporate taxes to wage taxes using a simple political economy model with internationally mobile and immobile firms. Among other results, our model predicts that countries reduce their corporate tax rate, relative to the wage tax, either when preferences for public goods increase or when a rising share of capital is employed in multinational firms. The predicted relationships are tested using panel data for 23 OECD countries for the period 1980 through 2001. The results of the empirical analysis support our central hypotheses

Measuring Taxes on Income from Capital: Evidence from the UK

This paper explores the empirical properties of alternative measures of the taxation of income from capital, using UK data over the last thirty years. We analyse measures of effective marginal and average tax rates, based on applying the legal parameters of the tax system to a hypothetical investment; and also measures based on observed tax payments or liabilities, scaled by various measures of income. There is a significant difference between these measures, both in their level and in how they move over time. The implicit assumption in some empirical work that these measures are broadly comparable to each other is not justified.

Redistributive taxation, multinational enterprises, and economic integration

Increased activity of multinational firms exposes national corporate tax bases to cross-country profit shifting, but also leads to rising profitability of the corporate sector. We incorporate these two effects of economic integration into a simple political economy model where the median voter decides on a redistributive income tax rate. In this setting economic integration may raise or lower the equilibrium tax rate, and it is more likely to raise the tax rate of a low-tax country. The implications of the model are consistent with the empirical observations that effective corporate tax rates have not fallen in all OECD countries, and that corporate tax revenues have generally risen.Redistributive taxation; profit shifting

Economic Integration and Redistributive Taxation: A Simple Model with Ambiguous Results

The rise in foreign direct investment and the increasing activity of multinational firms expose national corporate tax bases to cross-country profit shifting, but also lead to rising profitability of the corporate sector. We incorporate these two effects of economic integration into a simple political economy model where the median voter decides on a redistributive income tax rate. In this setting economic integration may raise or lower the equilibrium tax rate, depending on whether the higher excess burden of the tax or the larger redistributive gains from the perspective of the representative worker are the dominant effect. Our simple model holds several implications for future empirical work on the relationship between globalization and the effective rate of capital taxation.redistributive taxation, multinational firms, profit shifting

Globalisation and the Mix of Wage and Profit Taxes

This paper analyses the development of the ratio of corporate taxes to wage taxes using a simple political economy model with internationally mobile and immobile firms. Among other results, our model predicts that countries reduce their corporate tax rate, relative to the wage tax, either when preferences for public goods increase or when a rising share of capital is employed in multinational firms. The predicted relationships are tested using panel data for 23 OECD countries for the period 1980 through 2001. The results of the empirical analysis support our central hypotheses.capital and labour taxes, economic integration, multinational firms

Stamp duty on shares and its effect on share prices

This paper provides a discussion of stamp duty and its effects. This is followed by an empirical study using changes in the rate of stamp duty in the UK as natural experiments. Because shares will be affected differently depending on how frequently they are traded, we can employ a difference-in-differences methodology. We find that the announcements of cuts in stamp duty had a significant and positive effect on the price of more frequently traded shares compared to other shares. As expected under the efficient markets hypothesis, the implementation of cuts (when at a different date from the announcement) did not affect returns differentially.Stamp duty, transaction tax, Tobin-tax, natural experiment, tax reform