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Capital Taxes, Trade Costs, and the Irish Miracle

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  • John Romalis

Abstract

This paper uses detailed international trade data to examine whether the rapid growth of Ireland in the 1990s and its accompanying substantial increase in trade in goods and services might have been spurred by an interaction of low taxation of capital and declining international trade costs. Both tariffs and other trade costs for an important class of goods and services have declined to very low levels in the 1990s, while the expansion of foreign direct investment worldwide in that period suggests a great drop in technological and policy barriers to managing international production. The decline in trade costs has profound effects on small economies that also levy low levels of capital taxation. Such economies exhibit a great increase in the production and export of products that have high capital intensity. This implication receives strong support in detailed trade data. The expansion of such modern, high labor-productivity sectors has been identified as an important recent feature of Irish growth. (JEL: F12, F14, F21, F43, H25) (c) 2007 by the European Economic Association.

Suggested Citation

  • John Romalis, 2007. "Capital Taxes, Trade Costs, and the Irish Miracle," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 5(2-3), pages 459-469, 04-05.
  • Handle: RePEc:tpr:jeurec:v:5:y:2007:i:2-3:p:459-469
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Haufler, Andreas & Lülfesmann, Christoph, 2015. "Reforming an asymmetric union: On the virtues of dual tier capital taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 116-127.
    2. Sebastian Claro, 2009. "FDI Liberalization as a Source of Comparative Advantage in China," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(4), pages 740-753, November.
    3. A. Kerem Cosar & Paul L. E. Grieco & Felix Tintelnot, 2015. "Borders, Geography, and Oligopoly: Evidence from the Wind Turbine Industry," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 97(3), pages 623-637, July.
    4. Hayato Kato, 2018. "Lobbying and tax competition in an oligopolistic industry: a reverse home-market effect," Spatial Economic Analysis, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(3), pages 276-295, July.
    5. Frank Barry & Adele Bergin, 2019. "Export Structure, FDI and the Rapidity of Ireland’s Recovery from Crisis," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 50(4), pages 707-724.
    6. Nicholas Crafts, 2014. "Ireland’s Medium-Term Growth Prospects: a Phoenix Rising?," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 45(1), pages 87-112.
    7. Wang, Zhi & Wei, Shang-Jin & Wong, Anna, 2010. "Does a Leapfrogging Growth Strategy Raise Growth Rate? Some International Evidence," Working Papers on Regional Economic Integration 47, Asian Development Bank.
    8. Tehmina S. Khan & Mr. John Norregaard, 2007. "Tax Policy: Recent Trends and Coming Challenges," IMF Working Papers 2007/274, International Monetary Fund.
    9. Eoin O'Malley, 2012. "A Survey of Explanations for the Celtic Tiger Boom," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp417, IIIS.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F12 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Models of Trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale Economies; Fragmentation
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • F21 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Investment; Long-Term Capital Movements
    • F43 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - Economic Growth of Open Economies
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies

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