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Corporate Income Taxes Around the World - A Survey on Forward-looking Tax Measures and Two Applications

Author

Listed:
  • Elias Steinmüller
  • Georg U. Thunecke
  • Georg Wamser

Abstract

This study provides a survey on corporate taxes around the world. Our analysis has three main objectives. First, we collect tax data and calculate (forward-looking) effective tax measures for a large sample of countries and recent years. We particularly describe how these measures vary over time and across countries. Second, we augment the country-level information with firm- and industry-level data (providing weights for financial structure and asset composition) to contrast statutory measures at the level of countries with measures accounting for firm- and industry-specific weights. Third, we utilize our new data to (i) estimate Laffer-Curves, i.e., the relationship between statutory tax rate and tax revenue, based on non-parametric as well as parametric specifications; (ii) examine how taxes affect investment in fixed assets at the level of firms. As for the latter, our preferred specification, in which we use a firm-specific effective marginal tax rate to capture tax incentives, suggests an elasticity of -0.33.

Suggested Citation

  • Elias Steinmüller & Georg U. Thunecke & Georg Wamser, 2018. "Corporate Income Taxes Around the World - A Survey on Forward-looking Tax Measures and Two Applications," CESifo Working Paper Series 7050, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7050
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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business
    • F61 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization - - - Microeconomic Impacts

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