IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/kondp2/329.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Tax competition for foreign direct investment

Author

Listed:
  • Haufler, Andreas
  • Wooton, Ian

Abstract

We analyze tax competition between two countries of unequal size trying to attract a foreign-owned monopolist. When regional governments have only a lump-sum profit tax (subsidy) at their disposal, but face exogenous and identical transport costs for imports, then both countries will always offer to subsidize the firm. Furthermore, the maximum subsidy is greater in the larger region. However, if countries are given an additional instrument of either a tariff or a consumption tax, then the larger country will no longer underbid its smaller rival and its best offer may involve a positive profit tax. In both cases the equilibrium outcome is that the firm locates in the larger market, paying a profit tax that is increasing in the relative size of this market and which is made greater when the tariff (consumption tax) instrument is permitted.

Suggested Citation

  • Haufler, Andreas & Wooton, Ian, 1997. "Tax competition for foreign direct investment," Discussion Papers, Series II 329, University of Konstanz, Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 178 "Internationalization of the Economy".
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:kondp2:329
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/101778/1/72668998X.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wilson, John Douglas, 1991. "Tax competition with interregional differences in factor endowments," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 423-451, November.
    2. Krugman, Paul, 1980. "Scale Economies, Product Differentiation, and the Pattern of Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(5), pages 950-959, December.
    3. George Norman & Massimo Motta, 1993. "Eastern European Economic Integration and Foreign Direct Investment," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 2(4), pages 483-507, December.
    4. Gordon, Roger H, 1992. "Can Capital Income Taxes Survive in Open Economies?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(3), pages 1159-1180, July.
    5. Bucovetsky, Sam & Wilson, John Douglas, 1991. "Tax competition with two tax instruments," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 333-350, November.
    6. Krugman, Paul, 1991. "Increasing Returns and Economic Geography," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(3), pages 483-499, June.
    7. Markusen, James R. & Morey, Edward R. & Olewiler, Nancy, 1995. "Competition in regional environmental policies when plant locations are endogenous," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 55-77, January.
    8. Michael Rauscher, 1995. "Environmental regulation and the location of polluting industries," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 2(2), pages 229-244, August.
    9. Trandel, Gregory A., 1994. "Interstate commodity tax differentials and the distribution of residents," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(3), pages 435-457, March.
    10. Ignatius J. Horstmann & James R. Markusen, 2021. "Endogenous market structures in international trade (natura facit saltum)," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: BROADENING TRADE THEORY Incorporating Market Realities into Traditional Models, chapter 2, pages 25-45, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    11. Devereux, Michael P. & Griffith, Rachel, 1998. "Taxes and the location of production: evidence from a panel of US multinationals," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(3), pages 335-367, June.
    12. Bhagwati, Jagdish N. & Brecher, Richard A., 1980. "National welfare in an open economy in the presence of foreign-owned factors of production," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 103-115, February.
    13. Kanbur, Ravi & Keen, Michael, 1993. "Jeux Sans Frontieres: Tax Competition and Tax Coordination When Countries Differ in Size," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(4), pages 877-892, September.
    14. Smith, Alasdair & Venables, Anthony J., 1988. "Completing the internal market in the European Community : Some industry simulations," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(7), pages 1501-1525, September.
    15. Bucovetsky, S., 1991. "Asymmetric tax competition," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 167-181, September.
    16. Michael Devereux & Harold Freeman, 1995. "The impact of tax on foreign direct investment: Empirical evidence and the implications for tax integration schemes," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 2(1), pages 85-106, February.
    17. Keen, Michael, 1989. "Pareto-improving indirect tax harmonisation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 1-12, January.
    18. Keen, Michael, 1987. "Welfare effects of commodity tax harmonisation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 107-114, June.
    19. Brander, James A. & Spencer, Barbara J., 1987. "Foreign direct investment with unemployment and endogenous taxes and tariffs," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(3-4), pages 257-279, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jan I. Haaland & Ian Wooton, 1998. "International Competition for Foreign Multinational Investment," Working Papers 9812, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    2. Karen Crabbé, 2013. "Are Your Firm´s Taxes Set in Warsaw? Spatial Tax Competition in Europe," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 69(3), pages 317-337, September.
    3. David Collie & Hylke Vandenbussche, 2005. "Can Import Tariffs Deter Outward FDI?," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 341-362, October.
    4. Facundo Albornoz & Gregory Corcos & Toby Kendall, 2007. "Subsidy Competition and the Mode of FDI: Acquisition vs Greenfield," Discussion Papers 05-15, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham.
    5. Cooray, Arusha & Tamazian, Artur & Vadlamannati, Krishna Chaitanya, 2014. "What drives FDI policy liberalization? An empirical investigation," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 179-189.
    6. Aikaterini Kokkinou & Yannis Psycharis, 2005. "Foreign Direct Investment and Regional Attractiveness in Southeastern European countries," ERSA conference papers ersa05p382, European Regional Science Association.
    7. Robert C. Schmidt & Marco Runkel, 2016. "Environmental tax competition under firm mobility and leakage," Working Papers 2015016, Berlin Doctoral Program in Economics and Management Science (BDPEMS).
    8. Sourav Bhattacharya & Tapas Kundu, 2011. "Resistance, Redistribution and Investor Friendliness," Working Paper 454, Department of Economics, University of Pittsburgh, revised Jan 2012.
    9. Valeska Groenert & Ben Zissimos, 2013. "Developing Country Second-Mover Advantage in Competition Over Environmental Standards and Taxes," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 15(5), pages 700-728, October.
    10. Facundo Albornoz, Gregory Corcos and Toby Kendall, 2005. "Subsidy Competition and the Mode of FDI: Acquisition vs Greenfield," Discussion Papers 05-15, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham.
    11. Peter Egger & Horst Raff, 2015. "Tax rate and tax base competition for foreign direct investment," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 22(5), pages 777-810, October.
    12. Facundo Albornoz & Grégory Corcos, 2005. "Subsidy competition in integrating economies," Working Papers halshs-00590785, HAL.
    13. Pieretti, Patrice & Zanaj, Skerdilajda, 2011. "On tax competition, public goods provision and jurisdictions' size," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 124-130, May.
    14. Munongo, Simon & Akanbi, Olusegun Ayo & Robinson, Zurika, 2017. "Do tax incentives matter for investment? A literature review," Business and Economic Horizons (BEH), Prague Development Center (PRADEC), vol. 13(2).
    15. Felipa Mello Sampayo, 2006. "The Geographic Distribution of Economic Activities of the USA Multinational Enterprises," DEGIT Conference Papers c011_040, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade.
    16. Libman, Alexander, 2009. "Russian federalism and post-Soviet integration: Divergence of development paths," MPRA Paper 12944, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Libman, Alexander Mikhailovich, 2009. "Эндогенные Границы И Распределение Власти В Федерациях И Международных Сообществах [ENDOGENOUS BOUNDARIES AND DISTRIBUTION OF POWER In the Federation]," MPRA Paper 16473, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Oscar Amerighi & Giuseppe Feo, 2017. "Tax competition for foreign direct investments and the nature of the incumbent firm," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 19(4), pages 811-826, August.
    19. Müller, Thomas, 2003. "The Multinational Enterprise," Munich Dissertations in Economics 799, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    20. Norbäck, Pehr-Johan & Persson, Lars & Vlachos, Jonas, 2006. "Cross-Border Acquisitions and Corporate Taxes: Efficiency and Tax Revenues," Working Paper Series 663, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    21. Michael Keen & Kai A. Konrad, 2012. "International Tax Competition and Coordination," Working Papers international_tax_competi, Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance.
    22. Jun Oshiro, 2011. "Tariff Policy and Transport Costs under Reciprocal Dumping," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 11-17, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Haufler, Andreas & Wooton, Ian, 1999. "Country size and tax competition for foreign direct investment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 121-139, January.
    2. Zodrow, George R, 2003. "Tax Competition and Tax Coordination in the European Union," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 10(6), pages 651-671, November.
    3. Gordon, Roger H. & Hines, James Jr, 2002. "International taxation," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 28, pages 1935-1995, Elsevier.
    4. Braid, Ralph M., 2013. "State and local tax competition in a spatial model with sales taxes and residential property taxes," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 57-67.
    5. Wilson, John Douglas & Wildasin, David E., 2004. "Capital tax competition: bane or boon," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(6), pages 1065-1091, June.
    6. Yutao Han & Patrice Pieretti & Benteng Zou, 2017. "On The Desirability Of Tax Coordination When Countries Compete In Taxes And Infrastructure," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(2), pages 682-694, April.
    7. Braid, Ralph M., 2005. "Tax competition, tax exporting and higher-government choice of tax instruments for local governments," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(9-10), pages 1789-1821, September.
    8. Kind, Hans Jarle & Knarvik, Karen Helene Midelfart & Schjelderup, Guttorm, 2000. "Competing for capital in a 'lumpy' world," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(3), pages 253-274, November.
    9. Bucovetsky, Sam & Haufler, Andreas, 2008. "Tax competition when firms choose their organizational form: Should tax loopholes for multinationals be closed," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 188-201, January.
    10. Keuschnigg, Christian & Loretz, Simon & Winner, Hannes, 2014. "Tax Competition and Tax Coordination in the European Union: A Survey," Working Papers in Economics 2014-4, University of Salzburg.
    11. Haufler, Andreas & Wooton, Ian, 2006. "The effects of regional tax and subsidy coordination on foreign direct investment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 285-305, February.
    12. Leonzio Rizzo, 2006. "Le inefficienze della competizione fiscale: una rassegna dei principali modelli teorici," Economia politica, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 1, pages 89-120.
    13. Gaëtan Nicodème, 2006. "Corporate tax competition and coordination in the European Union: What do we know? Where do we stand?," European Economy - Economic Papers 2008 - 2015 250, Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission.
    14. Braid, Ralph M., 2000. "A Spatial Model of Tax Competition with Multiple Tax Instruments," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 88-114, January.
    15. Emmanuel Bretin & Stéphane Guimbert & Thierry Madiès, 2002. "La concurrence fiscale sur le bénéfice des entreprises : théories et pratiques," Économie et Prévision, Programme National Persée, vol. 156(5), pages 15-42.
    16. Sanz-Córdoba, Patricia, 2020. "The role of infrastructure investment and factor productivity in international tax competition," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 30-38.
    17. Mongrain, Steeve & Wilson, John D., 2018. "Tax competition with heterogeneous capital mobility," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 177-189.
    18. Janeba, Eckhard, 1998. "Tax competition in imperfectly competitive markets," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 135-153, February.
    19. Krishanu Karmakar & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, 2014. "Fiscal Competition versus Fiscal Harmonization: A Review of the Arguments," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper1431, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    20. Hannes Winner, 2005. "Has Tax Competition Emerged in OECD Countries? Evidence from Panel Data," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 12(5), pages 667-687, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    tax competition; economic integration; foreign direct investment; regional location;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F12 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Models of Trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale Economies; Fragmentation
    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
    • F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • H73 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Interjurisdictional Differentials and Their Effects

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:kondp2:329. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fwkonde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.