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Are Your Firm's Taxes Set in Warsaw? Spatial Tax Competition in Europe

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  • Crabbé, Karen
  • Vandenbussche, Hylke

Abstract

Tax competition within the EU is fiercer than in the rest of the OECD with tax rates falling rapidly. This paper analyzes tax responses of EU-15 countries to corporate tax changes in the EU-10 new member states as a function of their proximity to these new member states. The average corporate tax rate in the new member states has always been considerably lower than the average in the EU-15 countries. Their entry into the EU eliminated capital barriers, allowing firms to locate in one of the new EU-10 with full access to the European Market. Our results indicate that EU-15 countries geographically closer to the new member states respond stronger to corporate tax changes in these new member states. We use a theoretical and a spatial regression framework to test the hypothesis that distance to a low tax region intensifies countries' tax reaction functions.

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  • Crabbé, Karen & Vandenbussche, Hylke, 2009. "Are Your Firm's Taxes Set in Warsaw? Spatial Tax Competition in Europe," CEPR Discussion Papers 7159, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:7159
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    Cited by:

    1. Ronald B. Davies & Johannes Voget, 2008. "Tax competition in an expanding European Union," Working Papers 200904, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    2. Jorge Núñez Ferrer & Jacques Le Cacheux & Giacomo Benedetto & Mathieu Saunier & Fabien Candau & Claude Emonnot & Florence Lachet-Touya & Jorgen Mortensen & Aymeric Potteau & Igor Taranic, 2016. "Study on the potential and limitations of reforming the financing of the EU budget [Perspectives et limites pour réformer le financement du budget de l’UE]," Working Papers hal-01848029, HAL.
    3. Elisabeth Bustos Contell & Salvador Climent-Serrano & Gregorio Labatut-Serer, 2018. "The evolution of the tax burden for EU companies," Contemporary Economics, University of Economics and Human Sciences in Warsaw., vol. 12(4), December.
    4. Fatica, Serena, 2009. "Taxation and the quality of institutions: asymmetric effects on FDI," MPRA Paper 24179, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Jun 2010.
    5. Bräutigam, Rainer & Spengel, Christoph & Stutzenberger, Kathrin, 2017. "The development of corporate tax structures in the European Union from 1998 to 2015 - Qualitative and quantitative analysis," ZEW Discussion Papers 17-034, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    6. Heimberger, Philipp, 2021. "Corporate tax competition: A meta-analysis," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    7. 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.
    8. Jorge Núñez Ferrer & Jacques Le Cacheux & Giacomo Benedetto & Mathieu Saunier & Fabien Candau & Claude Emonnot & Florence Lachet-Touya & Jorgen Mortensen & Aymeric Potteau & Igor Taranic, 2016. "Study on the potential and limitations of reforming the financing of the EU budget
      [Perspectives et limites pour réformer le financement du budget de l’UE]      ," Working Papers hal-01848029, HAL.
    9. Michela Redoano, 2007. "Fiscal Interactions Among European Countries. Does the EU Matter?," CESifo Working Paper Series 1952, CESifo.
    10. Azémar, Céline & Desbordes, Rodolphe & Wooton, Ian, 2020. "Is international tax competition only about taxes? A market-based perspective," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 891-912.
    11. Nelly Exbrayat & Benny Geys, 2011. "Trade Integration and Business Tax Differentials: Theory and Evidence from OECD Countries," Post-Print halshs-00617043, HAL.
    12. Elisabeth Bustos-Contell & Salvador Climent-Serrano & Gregorio Labatut-Serer, 2017. "Offshoring in the European Union: a Study of the Evolution of the Tax Burden," Contemporary Economics, University of Economics and Human Sciences in Warsaw., vol. 11(2), June.
    13. Redoano, Michela, 2014. "Tax competition among European countries. Does the EU matter?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 353-371.
    14. Michael P. Devereux & Simon Loretz, 2013. "What Do We Know About Corporate Tax Competition?," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 66(3), pages 745-774, September.
    15. Markus Leibrecht & Claudia Hochgatterer, 2012. "Tax Competition As A Cause Of Falling Corporate Income Tax Rates: A Survey Of Empirical Literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 616-648, September.
    16. Suzuki, Masaaki, 2014. "Corporate effective tax rates in Asian countries," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 1-17.
    17. Streif, Frank, 2015. "Tax competition in Europe: Europe in competition with other world regions?," ZEW Discussion Papers 15-082, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    18. Masaaki Suzuki, 2013. "Corporate Effective Tax Rates in Asian Countries," KIER Working Papers 875, Kyoto University, Institute of Economic Research.
    19. Åsa Hansson & Susan Porter & Susan Williams, 2015. "The importance of the political process on corporate tax policy," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 281-306, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    corporate taxes; fiscal reaction function; Spatial tax competition;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • H39 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Other
    • H77 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Intergovernmental Relations; Federalism

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