Testing the Tax Competition Theory: How Elastic are National Tax Bases in OECD Countries?

To what extent do countries' corporate income tax (CIT) rates attract foreign tax bases? What are the revenue implications of a unilateral tax reduction when tax bases are internationally mobile? These questions are explored using a panel of annual data from 17 OECD countries spanning the period 1982 to 2005. We find significant international fiscal externalities in the form of CIT-induced resource flows. The magnitude, however, indicates that the extent of international corporate tax base mobility is rather modest. Moreover, we find that, on average, a unilateral CIT reduction results in a less-than-proportional increase in the CIT base, thus reducing CIT revenues. The results are robust across a wide range of specifications and point to potential gains from international tax policy coordination.tax competition, corporate income tax base elasticity, instrumental variables, international fiscal externalities, Laffer curve, panel data estimation

Swinging female labor demand – How the public sector influences gender wage gaps in Europe

We incorporate an economy’s sectoral structure into a standard theoretical framework to explain the influence of relative demand and supply effects on the gender wage gap. Using micro data covering 30 European countries over the 2003-2013 period, we construct a unique macro panel of gender wage gaps. We demonstrate that the public sector has causally determined half of the decrease in the gender wage gap over the period, thus acting as a ’swing demander’ for female labor. We further prove that it is exclusively demand factors and not composition effects that are driving this result.Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Serie

Contrasting the dynamic patterns of manufacturing and service FDI: Evidence from transition economies

We contribute to the foreign direct investment (FDI) literature by providing first empirical evidence on the relative importance of location fac- tors for service and manufacturing FDI. This is of particular interest as the global stock of inward FDI in the service sector has become predominant in the last ten years. Based on a sectoral panel of eight new European member states in the period of 1998 to 2004 we perform a dynamic panel analysis al- lowing for individual adjustment periods across sectors. Results support our assumption that investment into the service sector, which is characterized by low installation costs, adjusts much faster to its desired level than manufactur- ing FDI. Furthermore, since services are mostly non-tradable, FDI into this sector is largely based on market-seeking motives while manufacturing FDI is also driven by international price competitiveness measured via real unit labor costs. (author´s abstract)Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Serie

Taxes and infrastructure as determinants of Foreign Direct Investment in Central and Eastern European Countries revisited: New evidence from a spatially augmented gravity model

A bulk of empirical literature has emerged that explores the role of various location factors as determinants of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs). A notable feature of these studies is that their empirical approaches abstract from third-country (spatial) effects in FDI across the home and host country dimensions. Neglecting these effects could bias results concerning the role of location factors for attracting FDI. This in turn may lead to misguided economic policy conclusions. The current paper adds to the literature by applying the recently proposed spatial "origin-destinationow model" of LeSage and Pace (2008) to FDI ows from 7 Western OECD home countries to 8 CEE host countries. Controlling for country-pair and time effects our results indicate that (a) spatial interactions across the host country dimension matter for FDI revealing that vertical complex FDI ows dominate total FDI ows to CEECs; (b) spatial autocorrelation in the home country dimension is absent; (c) results of previous studies remain valid as coefficient estimates on location factors change only slightly when spatial interdependencies are considered and (d) effective corporate income taxes and the endowment with production-related material infrastruc- ture are statistically and economically signifficant determinants of FDI in CEECs. (author's abstract)Series: Discussion Papers SFB International Tax Coordinatio

Testing the tax competition theory: How elastic are national tax bases in western Europe?

In this paper, we test one of the fundamental assumptions in the tax competition literature, namely, that a country's taxable income depends on the tax policies pursued in the domestic and in neighbouring countries. Based on a panel of annual data of 14 western European countries spanning the period 1982 to 2004, we show that the common trend in falling corporate income tax (CIT) rates can in part be explained by the existence of fiscal externalities in the form of international resource flows. Our results confirm the presumption put forward in recent empirical tax reaction function studies, that interdependent tax setting behaviour is evidence of tax competition. However, taxable corporate income is shown to react inelastically to domestic and to foreign tax rates. Thus, the observed rise in CIT revenues in Europe between 1982 and 2004 cannot be explained by the trend in falling CIT rates. Moreover, we find that large countries' tax bases are more responsive to neighbouring countries' tax policies, which is in contrast to the classic asymmetric tax competition literature. (author's abstract)Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Serie

Contrasting the dynamic patterns of manufacturing and service FDI: Evidence from transition economies

We contribute to the foreign direct investment (FDI) literature by providing first empirical evidence on the relative importance of location factors for service and manufacturing FDI. This is of particular interest as the global stock of inward FDI in the service sector has become predominant in the last ten years. Based on a sectoral panel of eight new European member states in the period of 1998 to 2004 we perform a dynamic panel analysis allowing for individual adjustment periods across sectors. Results support our assumption that investment into the service sector, which is characterized by low installation costs, adjusts much faster to its desired level than manufacturing FDI. Furthermore, since services are mostly non-tradable, FDI into this sector is largely based on market-seeking motives while manufacturing FDI is also driven by international price competitiveness measured via real unit labor costs.

Location factors of FDI and the growing services economy

Foreign direct investment (FDI) has increasingly shifted toward the service sector. This change in the industrial composition of FDI and the non-tradable nature of services may have altered the importance of location factors for investment decisions. To capture potential changes in FDI determinants, a contrasting sectoral analysis is performed. Based on FDI stock data from eight new EU member states for the period 1998-2004, we implement a dynamic panel approach allowing the speed of adjustment to the equilibrium investment level to vary across sectors. Results support our assumption that investment into the service sector, which is characterized by low installation costs, adjusts much faster to its desired level than manufacturing FDI. Thus, government interventions to attract FDI are likely to boost the service sector immediately while having a slower impact on manufacturing FDI. Furthermore, as services are mostly non-tradable, FDI into this sector is largely based on market-seeking motives while FDI in the manufacturing sector is also driven by international price competitiveness measured by real unit labour costs. Copyright (c) 2010 The Author. Journal compilation (c) 2010 The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Regional convergence clubs in Europe: Identification and conditioning factors

The aim of this paper is to empirically identify convergence clubs in per capita incomes of European regions and to investigate whether initial conditions − as suggested by the club convergence hypothesis − are responsible for club formation. To tackle this issue, we propose a two-step procedure in which we first endogenously identify groups of regions that converge to the same steady state level, and in a second step we investigate the role of starting conditions and structural characteristics for a region's club membership. Our sample comprises 206 European NUTS2 regions between 1990 and 2002. The results strongly support the existence of convergence clubs, indicating that European regions form six separate groups converging to their own steady state paths. Moreover, estimates from an ordered logit model reveal that the level of initial conditions such as human capital and per capita income plays a crucial role in determining the formation of convergence clubs among European regions. (author's abstract

Modeling FDI based on a spatially augmented gravity model: evidence for Central and Eastern European countries

Based on a spatially augmented gravity model, the current paper isolates spatial interrelationships in foreign direct investment (FDI) to Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) not only across the destination but also across the origin country dimension of FDI. Results show that (i) spatial interrelationships across destination countries are present and are consistent with the predominance of vertical-complex FDI in total FDI; (ii) spatial correlation across origin countries is given in earlier years of transition, while spillover and competition effects cancel over the whole sample period; and (iii) agglomeration forces gain in importance for FDI to CEECs