This paper analyzes the importance of taxes on corporate income and production-related tangible infrastructure as determinants of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Central- and Eastern European Countries (CEECs). We operationalize taxes using effective average tax rates on the bilateral level and employ indices derived from principal component analysis as a proxy for the infrastructure endowment. In the empirical analysis we control for a possible interrelation between taxes and infrastructure as determinants of FDI ?an issue usually neglected in the literature. Thus, we posit that there are likely to be interaction effects between taxes and infrastructure as determinants of FDI. Specifically, a favorable infrastructure endowment may compensate for relatively high taxes. Hence, higher taxes may not deter FDI. The results from our panel econometric analysis of bilateral outward FDI flows of 7 home in 8 CEE host countries for the 1995-2004 period in an augmented gravity model setting show that (i) both taxes and infrastructure play a role in the location decisions made by Multinational Enterprises; (ii) telecommunication and transport infrastructure are of special significance to FDI; and (iii) the tax-rate sensitivity of FDI indeed decreases with the level of infrastructure endowment.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by LICOS - Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance, K.U.Leuven in its series LICOS Discussion Papers with number
19307.
Find related papers by JEL classification: F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration F21 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Investment; Long-Term Capital Movements F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Cited by: (explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)
Feld, Lars P. & Heckemeyer, Jost H., 2008.
"FDI and Taxation: A Meta-Study,"
ZEW Discussion Papers
08-128, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research.
[Downloadable!]