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Tax competition and tax structure in open federal economies : evidence from OECD countries with implications for the European Union

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Author Info
Goodspeed, Timothy J.

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Abstract

Tax competition arguments suggest that governements that operate in an open economy (such as local governments) should not and will not rely on non-benefit taxes, such as the income tax. Yet we observe reliance on income taxes by local governments in many countries, and such reliance changes over ime. Evidence from a panel data set of 13 OECD countries over the period 1975-1984 suggest that competition between levels of government (resulting in a vertical fiscal externality) and between governments at the same level (resulting in a horizontal fiscal exterbality) provide some economic rationale for these changes. Moreover, the evidence indicates that the vertical and horizontal fiscal externalities interact. These results have some interesting implications for fiscal policy in the European Union, particularly as the EU continues to evolve. One implication for the EU is that enlargement that increases tax base disparities within the EU (and is not accompanied by an EU-level income tax) will tend to lower national income tax rates, although this must be qualified because it also depends on the mobility of the population. A second implication is that fiscal expansion of the EU to include an EU-level income tax may tend to lower the reliance of national government om income taxes though the vertical externality, but may also tend to equalize tax bases across countries, and so increase reliance on national income taxes though the horizontal externality.

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Paper provided by ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research in its series ZEW Discussion Papers with number 99-39.

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Date of creation: 1999
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Handle: RePEc:zbw:zewdip:5252

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Related research
Keywords: Tax competition; Tax structure; Fiscal federalism; International taxation;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
H1 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government
H77 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Intergovernmental Relations; Federalism
H87 - Public Economics - - Miscellaneous Issues - - - International Fiscal Issues; International Public Goods

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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.:

  1. Goodspeed, Timothy J., 1998. "On the importance of public choice in migration models," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 59(3), pages 373-379, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Westhoff, Frank, 1977. "Existence of equilibria in economies with a local public good," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 84-112, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Epple, Dennis & Filimon, Radu & Romer, Thomas, 1984. "Equilibrium among local jurisdictions: toward an integrated treatment of voting and residential choice," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 281-308, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Assaf Razin & Efraim Sadka, 1991. "International Tax Competition and Gains from Tax Harmonization," NBER Working Papers 3152, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Besley, Timothy & Case, Anne, 1995. "Incumbent Behavior: Vote-Seeking, Tax-Setting, and Yardstick Competition," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(1), pages 25-45, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Bond, E.W. & Samuelson, L., 1988. "Strategic Behavior And The Rules For International Taxation Of Capital," Papers 3-88-10, Pennsylvania State - Department of Economics.
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  7. Persson, Torsten & Tabellini, Guido, 1992. "The Politics of 1992: Fiscal Policy and European Integration," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 59(4), pages 689-701, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. CREMER , Helmuth & FOURGEAUDÊ, Virginie & LEITEÊMONTEIROÊ, Manuel & MARCHAND, Maurice, 1995. "Mobility and Redistribution : A Survey," CORE Discussion Papers 1995066, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
  9. Wildasin, David E, 1991. "Income Redistribution in a Common Labor Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(4), pages 757-74, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Sinn, Hans-Werner, 1990. "Tax harmonization and tax competition in Europe," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(2-3), pages 489-504, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Hettich, Walter & Winer, Stanley L, 1988. "Economic and Political Foundations of Tax Structure," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(4), pages 701-12, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Fernandez, Raquel & Rogerson, Richard, 1998. "Public Education and Income Distribution: A Dynamic Quantitative Evaluation of Education-Finance Reform," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(4), pages 813-33, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Edwards, Jeremy & Keen, Michael, 1996. "Tax competition and Leviathan," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 113-134, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  14. Richard E. Baldwin & Joseph F. Francois & Richard Portes, 1997. "The costs and benefits of eastern enlargement: the impact on the EU and central Europe," Economic Policy, CEPR, CES, MSH, vol. 12(24), pages 125-176, 04. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Wildasin, David E., 1989. "Interjurisdictional capital mobility: Fiscal externality and a corrective subsidy," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 193-212, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  16. Boadway, R & Keen, M, 1996. "Efficiency and the optimal direction of federal-state transfers," IFS Working Papers W96/01, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
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  17. Wildasin, David E., 1988. "Nash equilibria in models of fiscal competition," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 229-240, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  18. Goodspeed, Timothy J., 1989. "A re-examination of the use of ability to pay taxes by local governments," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 319-342, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  19. Goodspeed, Timothy J., 2000. "Tax structure in a federation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(3), pages 493-506, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  20. Besley, Timothy J. & Rosen, Harvey S., 1998. "Vertical externalities in tax setting: evidence from gasoline and cigarettes," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(3), pages 383-398, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  21. Cremer, Helmuth & Pestieau, Pierre, 1996. "Distributive implications of European integration," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(3-5), pages 747-757, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  22. Gordon, Roger H, 1986. "Taxation of Investment and Savings in a World Economy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(5), pages 1086-1102, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  23. Kristov, Lorenzo & Lindert, Peter & McClelland, Robert, 1992. "Pressure groups and redistribution," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 135-163, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  24. Piketty, Thomas, 1996. "A federal voting mechanism to solve the fiscal-externality problem," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 3-17, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  25. David Wildasin, 1996. "Introduction: Fiscal Aspects of Evolving Federations," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 121-135, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  26. Epple, Dennis & Romer, Thomas, 1991. "Mobility and Redistribution," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(4), pages 828-58, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  27. Zodrow, George R. & Mieszkowski, Peter, 1986. "Pigou, Tiebout, property taxation, and the underprovision of local public goods," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 356-370, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  28. Deininger, Klaus & Squire, Lyn, 1996. "A New Data Set Measuring Income Inequality," World Bank Economic Review, Oxford University Press, vol. 10(3), pages 565-91, September.
  29. Goodspeed, Timothy J., 1995. "Local income taxation: An externality, Pigouvian solution, and public policies," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 279-296, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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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.)

  1. Linda Andersson & Thomas Aronsson & Magnus Wikström, 2004. "Testing for Vertical Fiscal Externalities," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer, vol. 11(3), pages 243-263, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Rizzo, Leonzio, 2007. "Interaction between vertical and horizontal tax competition: evidence and some theory," MPRA Paper 8632, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2008. [Downloadable!]
  3. Lisa Grazzini & Alessandro Petretto, 2006. "Vertical Tax Competition with Tax Sharing and Equalization Grants," Giornale degli Economisti, GDE (Giornale degli Economisti e Annali di Economia), Bocconi University, vol. 65(1), pages 75-94, May. [Downloadable!]
  4. Matthieu Leprince & Sonia Paty & Emmanuelle Reulier, 2005. "Choix d'imposition et interactions spatiales entre collectivités locales. Un test sur les départements français," Recherches économiques de Louvain, De Boeck Université, vol. 71(1), pages 67-93. [Downloadable!]
  5. Rizzo, Leonzio, 2005. "Interaction between Vertical and Horizontal tax Competition: Theory and Evidence," MPRA Paper 5334, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  6. Federico Revelli, 2005. "On Spatial Public Finance Empirics," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer, vol. 12(4), pages 475-492, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Devereux, Michael & Lockwood, Ben & Redoano, Michela, 2004. "Horizontal And Vertical Indirect Tax Competition : Theory And Some Evidence From The Usa," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 704, University of Warwick, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  8. Matthieu LEPRINCE & Sonia PATY & Emmanuelle REULIER, 2005. "Choix dÕimposition et interactions spatiales entre collectivitŽs locales : un test sur les dŽpartements franais," Discussion Papers (REL - Recherches Economiques de Louvain) 2005013, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES). [Downloadable!]
  9. Esteban Klor, 2002. "A Positive Model of Overlapping Income Taxation in a Federation of States," Wallis Working Papers WP32, University of Rochester - Wallis Institute of Political Economy. [Downloadable!]
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