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Who Bears the Burden of the Corporate Tax in The Open Economy?

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  • Jane Gravelle
  • Kent Smetters

Abstract

This paper investigates the long-run incidence of the corporate income tax in an open-economy model calibrated with two economies: the United States and a larger mirror economy representing the rest of the world. Imperfect substitutability of domestic and foreign products plays a key role in limiting - often eliminating - the incidence borne by domestic labor. We reach two novel conclusions. First, contrary to conventional wisdom, our analysis reveals that most of the long-run incidence of the corporate income tax is not borne by domestic labor. Nor is much of it borne by landowners. This finding is usually true even at an implausibly large portfolio substitution elasticity. The incidence is typically borne by domestic capital, as in the original Harberger (1962) closed-economy model. Second, for those parameter values in which the incidence is not borne mostly by domestic capital, interestingly, most of the incidence is exported. The exportation of the incidence of the corporate income tax, which has received little or no attention in the previous literature, might motivate tax coordination between countries. These results are robust to a range of parameter values and model assumptions. Our model is also compatible with several empirical rigidities.

Suggested Citation

  • Jane Gravelle & Kent Smetters, 2001. "Who Bears the Burden of the Corporate Tax in The Open Economy?," NBER Working Papers 8280, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:8280
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Stéphane Guimbert, 2002. "Réformes de la fiscalité du capital en Europe," Revue Française d'Économie, Programme National Persée, vol. 16(4), pages 113-169.
    2. Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, 2007. "Budget Policy and Income Distribution," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0707, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    3. Fullerton, Don & Metcalf, Gilbert E., 2002. "Tax incidence," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 26, pages 1787-1872, Elsevier.
    4. Glenn P. Jenkins & Chun-Yan Kuo, 2019. "Taxing mobile capital in free trade zones to the detriment of workers," Asia-Pacific Journal of Accounting & Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(3), pages 207-222, May.
    5. Hatice Jenkins & Glenn Jenkins, 2007. "Incidence Of The Wto Anti-discrimination Rules On Corporation Income Taxation," Working Paper 1123, Economics Department, Queen's University.
    6. Seth G. Benzell & Laurence J. Kotlikoff & Guillermo Lagarda & Yifan Ye, 2018. "Simulating U.S. Business Cash Flow Taxation in a 17-Region Global Model," Boston University - Department of Economics - The Institute for Economic Development Working Papers Series dp-312, Boston University - Department of Economics.
    7. Meh, Césaire A., 2008. "Business risk, credit constraints, and corporate taxation," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 32(9), pages 2971-3008, September.
    8. Leon Bettendorf & Joeri Gorter & Albert van der Horst, 2006. "Who benefits from tax competition in the European Union?," CPB Document 125, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    9. Sergey Sinelnikov-Murylev & Elena Shkrebela, 2011. "Improvement of corporate profit tax in the Russian Federation in the medium term," Research Paper Series, Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy, issue 149P.
    10. George R. Zodrow, 2019. "Should Capital Income Be Subject to Consumption-Based Taxation?," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: George R Zodrow (ed.), TAXATION IN THEORY AND PRACTICE Selected Essays of George R. Zodrow, chapter 5, pages 131-168, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    11. Alan J. Auerbach, 2006. "Who Bears the Corporate Tax? A Review of What We Know," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 20, pages 1-40, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Seth G. Benzell & Laurence J. Kotlikoff & Guillermo LaGarda & Victor Yifan Ye, 2017. "Simulating Business Cash Flow Taxation," NBER Working Papers 23675, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Serena Fatica, 2017. "Measurement and Allocation of Capital Inputs With Taxes: A Sensitivity Analysis for OECD Countries," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 63(1), pages 1-29, March.
    14. Sorensen, Peter Birch, 2004. "International tax coordination: regionalism versus globalism," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(6), pages 1187-1214, June.

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    • H2 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue

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