IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/v94y2004i1p259-275.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Pareto-Efficient International Taxation

Author

Listed:
  • Michael Keen
  • David Wildasin

Abstract

This paper analyzes Pareto-efficient international tax regimes. Because every country faces its own national budget constraint, the Diamond-Mirrlees production-efficiency theorem, which underlies key tenets of policy advice in international taxation - the desirability of destination basis for commodity taxation, of the residence principle for capital income taxation, and of free trade - does not apply. The paper establishes conditions - relating to the availability of explicit or implicit devices for reallocating tax revenues across countries - under which production efficiency is nevertheless desirable, and characterizes the precise ways in which Pareto-efficient international taxation may require violation of established tenets.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Keen & David Wildasin, 2004. "Pareto-Efficient International Taxation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(1), pages 259-275, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:94:y:2004:i:1:p:259-275
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/000282804322970797
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/000282804322970797
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael Keen & Hannu Piekkola, 1997. "Simple Rules for the Optimal Taxation of International Capital Income," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 99(3), pages 447-461, September.
    2. Huizinga, Harry & Nielsen, Soren Bo, 1997. "Capital income and profit taxation with foreign ownership of firms," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1-2), pages 149-165, February.
    3. Kotsogiannis, Christos & Makris, Miltiadis, 2002. "On production efficiency in federal systems," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 281-287, July.
    4. Devarajan, Shantayanan & Go, Delfin & Schiff, Maurice & Suthiwart-Narueput, Sethaput, 1996. "The whys and why nots of export taxation," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1684, The World Bank.
    5. J. A. Mirrlees, 1972. "On Producer Taxation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 39(1), pages 105-111.
    6. Keen, Michael & Lahiri, Sajal, 1998. "The comparison between destination and origin principles under imperfect competition," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 323-350, August.
    7. Newbery, David M., 1986. "On the desirability of input taxes," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 267-270.
    8. Stefan Homburg, 1999. "Competition and Co-ordination in International Capital Income Taxation," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 56(1), pages 1-17, March.
    9. repec:bla:scandj:v:99:y:1997:i:3:p:447-61 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Arja H. Turunen-Red & Alan D. Woodland, 1996. "Recent Developments in Multilateral Policy Reform," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 29(s1), pages 394-400, April.
    11. Lockwood, Ben, 1993. "Commodity tax competition under destination and origin principles," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 141-162, September.
    12. James R. Hines Jr., 2000. "Tax Sparing and Direct Investment in Developing Countries," NBER Chapters, in: International Taxation and Multinational Activity, pages 39-72, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Auerbach, Alan J., 1985. "The theory of excess burden and optimal taxation," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 2, pages 61-127, Elsevier.
    14. Peter A. Diamond & J. A. Mirrlees, 1968. "Optimal Taxation and Public Production," Working papers 22, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics.
    15. Partha Dasgupta & Joseph Stiglitz, 1972. "On Optimal Taxation and Public Production," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 39(1), pages 87-103.
    16. Harris, Richard G., 1979. "Efficient commodity taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 27-39, August.
    17. Stiglitz, Joseph E., 1982. "Self-selection and Pareto efficient taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 213-240, March.
    18. Ebrill, Liam P. & Slutsky, Steven M., 1989. "Decentralized decision making with common goals : The a[right ceiling]truists' dilemma and regulatory pricing," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 5(2-3), pages 177-201.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Michael Keen & David E. Wildasin, 2000. "Pareto Efficiency in International Taxation," CESifo Working Paper Series 371, CESifo.
    2. Coate, Stephen, 2000. "An Efficiency Approach to the Evaluation of Policy Changes," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 110(463), pages 437-455, April.
    3. Wolfram Richter & Kerstin Schneider, 2001. "Taxing Mobile Capital with Labor Market Imperfections," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 8(3), pages 245-262, May.
    4. Huizinga, Harry & Nielsen, Soren Bo, 2001. "Privatization, public investment, and capital income taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(3), pages 399-414, December.
    5. Erkki Koskela & Ronnie Schöb, 2002. "Optimal Factor Income Taxation in the Presence of Unemployment," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 4(3), pages 387-404, July.
    6. Homburg, Stefan, 2010. "Allgemeine Steuerlehre: Kapitel 1. Grundbegriffe der Steuerlehre," EconStor Books, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, number 92547, January.
    7. Lockwood, Ben, 2001. "Tax competition and tax co-ordination under destination and origin principles: a synthesis," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(2), pages 279-319, August.
    8. Eskeland, Gunnar S., 2000. "Public expenditures and environmental protection : when is the cost of funds irrelevant?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2507, The World Bank.
    9. Lundholm, Michael & Wijkander, Hans, 2002. "Public Ownership and Income Redistribution," Research Papers in Economics 2003:2, Stockholm University, Department of Economics.
    10. Dickescheid, Thomas, 2002. "Steuerwettbewerb und Direktinvestitionen," Beiträge zur Finanzwissenschaft, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, edition 1, volume 16, number urn:isbn:9783161477348, June.
    11. Michael P. Devereux & Peter Birch Sørensen, 2006. "The Corporate Income Tax: international trends and options for fundamental reform," European Economy - Economic Papers 2008 - 2015 264, Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission.
    12. Andreas HaufLer & Guttorm Schjelderup & Frank Stähler, 2005. "Barriers to Trade and Imperfect Competition: The Choice of Commodity Tax Base," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 12(3), pages 281-300, May.
    13. Claudio Agostini, "undated". "Tax Interdependence in the U.S. States," ILADES-UAH Working Papers inv151, Universidad Alberto Hurtado/School of Economics and Business.
    14. Haufler, Andreas & Schjelderup, Guttorm, 2004. "Tacit collusion and international commodity taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(3-4), pages 577-600, March.
    15. Andreas Haufler, 1996. "Optimal factor and commodity taxation in a small open economy," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 3(3), pages 425-442, July.
    16. Andreas Haufler & Michael Pflüger, 2004. "International Commodity Taxation under Monopolistic Competition," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 6(3), pages 445-470, August.
    17. Stéphane Gauthier & Guy Laroque, 2019. "Production efficiency and profit taxation," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 52(2), pages 215-223, February.
    18. 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.
    19. Michael P. Devereux, 2008. "Taxation of outbound direct investment: economic principles and tax policy considerations," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 24(4), pages 698-719, winter.
    20. Assaf Razin & Efraim Sadka & Chi-Wa Yuen, "undated". "Quantitative Implications of the Home Bias: Foreign Underinvestment, Domestic Oversaving, and Corrective Taxation," EPRU Working Paper Series 97-27, Economic Policy Research Unit (EPRU), University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    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:aea:aecrev:v:94:y:2004:i:1:p:259-275. 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: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.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.