IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/imf/imfwpa/2018-069.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

At A Cost: the Real Effects of Transfer Pricing Regulations

Author

Listed:
  • Ruud A. de Mooij
  • Ms. Li Liu

Abstract

Unilateral adoption of transfer pricing regulations may have a negative impact on real investment by multinational corporations (MNCs). This paper uses a quasi-experimental research design, exploiting unique panel data on domestic and multinational companies in 27 countries during 2006-2014, to find that MNC affiliates reduce their investment by over 11 percent following the introduction of transfer pricing regulations. There is no significant reduction in total investment by the MNC group, suggesting that these investments are most likely shifted to affiliates in other countries. The impact of transfer pricing regulations corresponds to an increase in the ``TPR-adjusted'' corporate tax rate by almost one quarter.

Suggested Citation

  • Ruud A. de Mooij & Ms. Li Liu, 2018. "At A Cost: the Real Effects of Transfer Pricing Regulations," IMF Working Papers 2018/069, International Monetary Fund.
    • Handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2018/069
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=45734
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bodo Knoll & Nadine Riedel, 2015. "Transfer Pricing Laws," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 12(4), pages 22-26, 01.
    2. Hassett, Kevin A. & Hubbard, R. Glenn, 2002. "Tax policy and business investment," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 20, pages 1293-1343, Elsevier.
    3. Theresa Lohse & Nadine Riedel, 2013. "Do Transfer Pricing Laws Limit International Income Shifting? Evidence from European Multinationals," CESifo Working Paper Series 4404, CESifo.
    4. John W. Budd & Jozef Konings & Matthew J. Slaughter, 2005. "Wages and International Rent Sharing in Multinational Firms," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(1), pages 73-84, February.
    5. Peralta, Susana & Wauthy, Xavier & van Ypersele, Tanguy, 2006. "Should countries control international profit shifting?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 24-37, January.
    6. James J. Heckman & Hidehiko Ichimura & Petra E. Todd, 1997. "Matching As An Econometric Evaluation Estimator: Evidence from Evaluating a Job Training Programme," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 64(4), pages 605-654.
    7. repec:ces:ifodic:v:12:y:2015:i:4:p:19149986 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Desai, Mihir A. & Foley, C. Fritz & Hines, James Jr., 2006. "The demand for tax haven operations," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(3), pages 513-531, February.
    9. Clausing, Kimberly A., 2003. "Tax-motivated transfer pricing and US intrafirm trade prices," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(9-10), pages 2207-2223, September.
    10. Sebastian Beer & Ruud de Mooij & Li Liu, 2020. "International Corporate Tax Avoidance: A Review Of The Channels, Magnitudes, And Blind Spots," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(3), pages 660-688, July.
    11. Thomas Tørsløv & Ludvig Wier & Gabriel Zucman, 2023. "The Missing Profits of Nations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 90(3), pages 1499-1534.
    12. Bucovetsky, Sam & Haufler, Andreas, 2007. "Preferential Tax Regimes With Asymmetric Countries," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 60(4), pages 789-795, December.
    13. Dominika Langenmayr & Li Liu, 2020. "Where Does Multinational Profit Go with Territorial Taxation? Evidence from the UK," CESifo Working Paper Series 8047, CESifo.
    14. Keen, Michael, 2001. "Preferential Regimes Can Make Tax Competition Less Harmful," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 54(4), pages 757-762, December.
    15. Li Liu & Tim Schmidt-Eisenlohr & Dongxian Guo, 2017. "International Transfer Pricing and Tax Avoidance: Evidence from Linked Trade-Tax Statistics in the UK," CESifo Working Paper Series 6594, CESifo.
    16. Kalina Manova & Shang-Jin Wei & Zhiwei Zhang, 2015. "Firm Exports and Multinational Activity Under Credit Constraints," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 97(3), pages 574-588, July.
    17. Dharmapala, Dhammika & Riedel, Nadine, 2013. "Earnings shocks and tax-motivated income-shifting: Evidence from European multinationals," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 95-107.
    18. Jennifer Blouin & Harry Huizinga & Luc Laeven & Gaëtan Nicodème, 2013. "Thin capitalization rules and multinational firm capital structure," Working Papers 1323, Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation.
    19. Alviarez, Vanessa & Cravino, Javier & Levchenko, Andrei A., 2017. "The growth of multinational firms in the Great Recession," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 50-64.
    20. Overesch, Michael, 2009. "The Effects of Multinationals’ Profit Shifting Activities on Real Investments," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 62(1), pages 5-23, March.
    21. Andrew B. Bernard & J. Bradford Jensen & Peter K. Schott, 2006. "Transfer Pricing by U.S.-Based Multinational Firms," NBER Working Papers 12493, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    22. Harry Grubert & Joel Slemrod, 1998. "The Effect Of Taxes On Investment And Income Shifting To Puerto Rico," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 80(3), pages 365-373, August.
    23. Keen, Michael, 2001. "Preferential Regimes Can Make Tax Competition Less Harmful," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 54(n. 4), pages 757-62, December.
    24. Danny Yagan, 2015. "Capital Tax Reform and the Real Economy: The Effects of the 2003 Dividend Tax Cut," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(12), pages 3531-3563, December.
    25. Dan Andrews & Chiara Criscuolo & Peter N. Gal, 2015. "Frontier Firms, Technology Diffusion and Public Policy: Micro Evidence from OECD Countries," OECD Productivity Working Papers 2, OECD Publishing.
    26. Buettner, Thiess & Wamser, Georg, 2013. "Internal Debt and Multinational Profit Shifting: Empirical Evidence From Firm-Level Panel Data," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 66(1), pages 63-95, March.
    27. Dhammika Dharmapala, 2014. "What Do We Know about Base Erosion and Profit Shifting? A Review of the Empirical Literature," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 35, pages 421-448, December.
    28. De Mooij, Ruud & Hebous, Shafik, 2018. "Curbing corporate debt bias: Do limitations to interest deductibility work?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 368-378.
    29. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 249-275.
    30. V. Vicard, 2015. "Profit shifting through transfer pricing: evidence from French firm level trade data," Working papers 555, Banque de France.
    31. Anca D. Cristea & Daniel X. Nguyen, 2016. "Transfer Pricing by Multinational Firms: New Evidence from Foreign Firm Ownerships," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 8(3), pages 170-202, August.
    32. Mário Marques & Carlos Pinho, 2016. "Is transfer pricing strictness deterring profit shifting within multinationals? Empirical evidence from Europe," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(7), pages 703-730, November.
    33. Janeba, Eckhard & Smart, Michael, 2003. "Is Targeted Tax Competition Less Harmful Than Its Remedies?," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 10(3), pages 259-280, May.
    34. Heckemeyer, Jost H. & Overesch, Michael, 2013. "Multinationals' profit response to tax differentials: Effect size and shifting channels," ZEW Discussion Papers 13-045, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    35. Ernesto Crivelli & Ruud De Mooij & Michael Keen, 2016. "Base Erosion, Profit Shifting and Developing Countries," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 72(3), pages 268-301, September.
    36. Theresa Lohse & Nadine Riedel & Christoph Spengel, 2012. "The Increasing Importance of Transfer Pricing Regulations – a Worldwide Overview," Working Papers 1227, Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation.
    37. Jason G. Cummins & Kevin A. Hassett & R. Glenn Hubbard, 1994. "A Reconsideration of Investment Behavior Using Tax Reforms as Natural Experiments," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 25(2), pages 1-74.
    38. Becker, Johannes & Fuest, Clemens, 2012. "Transfer pricing policy and the intensity of tax rate competition," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 117(1), pages 146-148.
    39. Sebastian Beer & Jan Loeprick, 2015. "Profit shifting: drivers of transfer (mis)pricing and the potential of countermeasures," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 22(3), pages 426-451, June.
    40. Devan Mescall & Kenneth J. Klassen, 2018. "How Does Transfer Pricing Risk Affect Premiums in Cross‐Border Mergers and Acquisitions?," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 35(2), pages 830-865, June.
    41. Fuest, Clemens & Spengel, Christoph & Finke, Katharina & Heckemeyer, Jost H. & Nusser, Hannah, 2013. "Profit shifting and 'aggressive' tax planning by multinational firms: Issues and options for reform," ZEW Discussion Papers 13-078, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    42. Bond, Stephen & Xing, Jing, 2015. "Corporate taxation and capital accumulation: Evidence from sectoral panel data for 14 OECD countries," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 15-31.
    43. Katarzyna Anna Bilicka, 2019. "Comparing UK Tax Returns of Foreign Multinationals to Matched Domestic Firms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(8), pages 2921-2953, August.
    44. James R. Hines & Eric M. Rice, 1994. "Fiscal Paradise: Foreign Tax Havens and American Business," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(1), pages 149-182.
    45. Molly J. Saunders-Scott, 2015. "Substitution Across Methods of Profit Shifting," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 68(4), pages 1099-1120, December.
    46. Ricardo J. Caballero & Eduardo M. R. A. Engel & John C. Haltiwanger, 1995. "Plant-Level Adjustment and Aggregate Investment Dynamics," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 26(2), pages 1-54.
    47. Li Liu, 2020. "Where Does Multinational Investment Go with Territorial Taxation? Evidence from the United Kingdom," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 12(1), pages 325-358, February.
    48. repec:ces:ifodic:v:12:y:2015:i:4:p:19151968 is not listed on IDEAS
    49. Valeria Merlo & Georg Wamser, 2015. "Debt Shifting and Thin-capitalization Rules," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 12(04), pages 27-31, January.
    50. Buettner, Thiess & Overesch, Michael & Schreiber, Ulrich & Wamser, Georg, 2012. "The impact of thin-capitalization rules on the capital structure of multinational firms," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(11), pages 930-938.
    51. Eric Zwick & James Mahon, 2017. "Tax Policy and Heterogeneous Investment Behavior," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(1), pages 217-248, January.
    52. Ruud A. de Mooij & Mr. Shafik Hebous, 2017. "Curbing Corporate Debt Bias," IMF Working Papers 2017/022, International Monetary Fund.
    53. Bodo Knoll & Nadine Riedel, 2015. "Transfer Pricing Laws," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 12(04), pages 22-26, January.
    54. Valeria Merlo & Georg Wamser, 2015. "Debt Shifting and Thin-capitalization Rules," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 12(4), pages 27-31, 01.
    55. Christopher L. House & Matthew D. Shapiro, 2008. "Temporary Investment Tax Incentives: Theory with Evidence from Bonus Depreciation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(3), pages 737-768, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Beer,Sebastian & Loeprick,Jan, 2018. "The Cost and Benefits of Tax Treaties with Investment Hubs : Findings from Sub-Saharan Africa," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8623, The World Bank.
    2. Albertus, James F. & Glover, Brent & Levine, Oliver, 2019. "Heads I win, tails you lose: Asymmetric taxes, risk taking, and innovation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 24-40.
    3. de Mooij, Ruud & Liu, Li, 2021. "At a cost: The real effects of thin capitalization rules," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    4. Joana Andrade Vicente, . "Arguments for implementing formulary apportionment in the European Union," UNCTAD Transnational Corporations Journal, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
    5. Gauß, P. & Kortenhaus, M. & Riedel, N. & Simmler, M., 2024. "Leveling the playing field: Constraints on multinational profit shifting and the performance of national firms," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    6. Garcia-Bernardo, Javier & Janský, Petr, 2024. "Profit shifting of multinational corporations worldwide," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    7. Zheng, Jiaxing & Bai, Sida & Gu, Cheng & Huang, Bihui & Xiong, Mengxu, 2024. "The role of anti-tax avoidance in tax base flow and international tax competition," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    8. Langenmayr, Dominika & Liu, Li, 2023. "Home or away? Profit shifting with territorial taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).

    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. Sebastian Beer & Ruud de Mooij & Li Liu, 2020. "International Corporate Tax Avoidance: A Review Of The Channels, Magnitudes, And Blind Spots," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(3), pages 660-688, July.
    2. Sabine Schenkelberg, 2020. "The Cadbury Schweppes judgment and its implications on profit shifting activities within Europe," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 27(1), pages 1-31, February.
    3. Thiess Buettner & Michael Overesch & Georg Wamser, 2018. "Anti profit-shifting rules and foreign direct investment," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 25(3), pages 553-580, June.
    4. Overesch Michael, 2016. "Steuervermeidung multinationaler Unternehmen: Die Befunde der empirischen Forschung," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, De Gruyter, vol. 17(2), pages 129-143, July.
    5. Makoto Hasegawa, 2023. "Territorial Tax Reform and Profit Shifting by US and Japanese Multinationals," National Tax Journal, University of Chicago Press, vol. 76(4), pages 771-804.
    6. Bilicka, Katarzyna & Qi, Yaxuan & Xing, Jing, 2022. "Real responses to anti-tax avoidance: Evidence from the UK Worldwide Debt Cap," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).
    7. Bakke, Julia Tropina & Hopland, Arnt Ove & Møen, Jarle, 2019. "Profit shifting and the effect of stricter transfer pricing regulation on tax revenue," Discussion Papers 2019/11, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Business and Management Science.
    8. Langenmayr, Dominika & Liu, Li, 2023. "Home or away? Profit shifting with territorial taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    9. Evers, Maria Theresia & Meier, Ina & Spengel, Christoph, 2017. "Country-by-country reporting: Tension between transparency and tax planning," ZEW Discussion Papers 17-008, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    10. Cyril Chalendard, 2016. "Shifting-Profits through Tax Loopholes. Evidence from Ecuador," CESifo Working Paper Series 6240, CESifo.
    11. Joana Andrade Vicente, 2021. "Tax us, if you can: a game theoretic approach to profit shifting within the European Union," Working Papers REM 2021/0206, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, REM, Universidade de Lisboa.
    12. Ulrich Schreiber, 2015. "Investitionseffekte des BEPS Aktionsplans der OECD," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 67(1), pages 102-127, February.
    13. Ji Lee, Ye & Seon Yoo, Ji, 2023. "Loss expectation and income shifting," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2).
    14. Cooper, Maggie & Nguyen, Quyen T.K., 2020. "Multinational enterprises and corporate tax planning: A review of literature and suggestions for a future research agenda," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(3).
    15. Pham, Anh, 2020. "Effects of temporary corporate income tax cuts: Evidence from Vietnam," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    16. Li Liu & Tim Schmidt-Eisenlohr & Dongxian Guo, 2020. "International Transfer Pricing and Tax Avoidance: Evidence from Linked Trade-Tax Statistics in the United Kingdom," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(4), pages 766-778, October.
    17. Ropponen, Olli, 2021. "Interest Limitation Rules and Business Cycles: Empirical Evidence," ETLA Working Papers 90, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    18. Ludvig Wier, 2018. "Tax-motivated transfer mispricing in South Africa: Direct evidence using transaction data," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2018-123, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    19. Ludvig Wier, 2018. "Tax-motivated transfer mispricing in South Africa: Direct evidence using transaction data," WIDER Working Paper Series 123, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    20. Nicolay, Katharina & Nusser, Hannah & Pfeiffer, Olena, 2017. "On the interdependency of profit shifting channels and the effectiveness of anti-avoidance legislation," ZEW Discussion Papers 17-066, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    WP; parent company; cost of capital; gross investment; tax rate; profit shifting; foreign direct investment; corporate tax policy; multinational firms; MNC investment; company group; investment response; ratio variable; MNC group; Transnational corporations; Transfer pricing rules; Corporate income tax; Transfer pricing; Thin capitalization rules; Global;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • H87 - Public Economics - - Miscellaneous Issues - - - International Fiscal Issues; International Public Goods
    • F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business

    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:imf:imfwpa:2018/069. 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: Akshay Modi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/imfffus.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.