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Tax Competition and the Nature of Capital

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The standard race-to-the-bottom result is curious in one respect. If a nation wants to attract foreign capital, providing the optimal level of public amenities (and thus charging the optimal tax rate) would seem optimal. This conjecture fails in the standard tax competition model since foreign capital ignores host nation amenities. While this assumption is reasonable for physical capital, other forms of capital (human capital) tends to move with its owner, so amenities matter. We show that when factors move with their owners, symmetric international tax competition may leads to the socially optimal rate. This result can be thought of as a corollary of the Tiebout efficiency hypothesis.

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  • Baldwin, Richard E. & Forslid, Rikard, 2002. "Tax Competition and the Nature of Capital," Research Papers in Economics 2002:18, Stockholm University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:sunrpe:2002_0018
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    1. Charles M. Tiebout, 1956. "A Pure Theory of Local Expenditures," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64, pages 416-416.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Riou, Stephane, 2006. "Transfer and tax competition in a system of hierarchical governments," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 249-269, March.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Tax Competition; Tiebout hypothesis;

    JEL classification:

    • F12 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Models of Trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale Economies; Fragmentation
    • F20 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - General
    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation

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