IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/0193.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Optimal Taxation of Foreign Source Investment Income

Author

Listed:
  • Martin Feldstein
  • David G. Hartman

Abstract

Our paper begins with the relatively simple problem of optimal taxation as viewed by the capital-exporting ("home") country when it can assume that its actions do not alter the tax rate in the host country. Section I also shows that when foreign investment accounts for a significant fraction of production in the host country, the capital-exporting country should tax foreign source investment income more heavily than is implied by the "full taxation after deduction" rule. The important question of tax rate interdependence is developed in Section II. In the third section we replace the assumption that all foreign investment is financed by a transfer of equity capital from the home country with the more realistic description that subsidiary firms borrow in the host country. Although this raises the profitability to the home country of investment by its foreign subsidiaries, we show that this need not alter the conclusions of the previous sections. We regard the present paper as only a first step in a proper analysis of the complex issue of optimal taxation of foreign source investment income. . The static analysis of the present paper should be extended to consider investment paths in growing economics. Finally, the purely nationalistic optimality criterion could be generalized to give some weight to the real income of the rest of the world.

Suggested Citation

  • Martin Feldstein & David G. Hartman, 1980. "The Optimal Taxation of Foreign Source Investment Income," NBER Working Papers 0193, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:0193
    Note: PE
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w0193.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert E. Baldwin, 1952. "The New Welfare Economics and Gains in International Trade," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 66(1), pages 91-101.
    2. Martin Feldstein & Jerry Green & Eytan Sheshinski, 1979. "Corporate Financial Policy and Taxation in a Growing Economy," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 93(3), pages 411-432.
    3. Koichi Hamada, 1966. "Strategic Aspects of Taxation on Foreign Investment Income," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 80(3), pages 361-375.
    4. G. D. A. MacDougall, 1960. "THE BENEFITS and COSTS OF PRIVATE INVESTMENT FROM ABROAD: A THEORETICAL APPROACH," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 36(73), pages 13-35, March.
    5. Ronald W. Jones, 1967. "International Capital Movements and the Theory of Tariffs and Trade," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 81(1), pages 1-38.
    6. Murray C. Kemp, 1962. "Foreign Investment And The National Advantage," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 38(81), pages 56-62, March.
    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. Slemrod, Joel & Hansen, Carl & Procter, Roger, 1997. "The seesaw principle in international tax policy," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 163-176, August.
    2. Yong Yang, 1998. "International Taxation When Domestic Distributional Policy is Constrained," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1), pages 75-93.
    3. Christopher C. Findlay, 1986. "Optimal Taxation of International Income Flows," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 62(2), pages 208-214, June.
    4. Hans-Werner Sinn, 1991. "Taxation and the Cost of Capital: The "Old" View, the "New" View, and Another View," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 5, pages 25-54, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Jean-François Wen, 1997. "Tax Holidays and the International Capital Market," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 4(2), pages 129-148, May.
    6. Fathali Firoozi, 1998. "On the Second-Best Foreign Investment Policy and Pattern of Commodity Trade," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 42(1), pages 34-41, March.
    7. Lih-Jau Wang & Alfredo M. Pereira, 1994. "Optimal Taxation of Foreign Source Investment Income With Heterogeneous Households," Public Finance Review, , vol. 22(1), pages 103-134, January.
    8. John Dutton, 1986. "Optimal Taxes on Foreign Investment in an Overlapping Generation Model," Public Finance Review, , vol. 14(3), pages 289-311, July.
    9. Helpman, Elhanan & Razin, Assaf, 1979. "A Theory of International Trade Under Uncertainty," Elsevier Monographs, Elsevier, edition 1, number 9780123396501 edited by Shell, Karl.
    10. Andrzej Cieślik, 2020. "What attracts multinational enterprises from the new EU member states to Poland?," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 10(2), pages 253-269, June.
    11. Buiter, Willem H, 1981. "Time Preference and International Lending and Borrowing in an Overlapping-Generations Model," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(4), pages 769-797, August.
    12. Andrzej Cieślik, 2017. "Determinanty bezpośrednich inwestycji zagranicznych w Polsce: Czy integracja europejska ma znaczenie?," Collegium of Economic Analysis Annals, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of Economic Analysis, issue 47, pages 65-82.
    13. Biswas, Rajit, 2014. "Metzler paradox and home market effects in presence of internationally mobile capital and non-traded goods," MPRA Paper 56335, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Adriana CAZACU, 2020. "International Double Taxation. Content, Consequences and Avoidance (I)," CECCAR Business Review, Body of Expert and Licensed Accountants of Romania (CECCAR), vol. 1(8), pages 62-72, August.
    15. James R. Markusen & Keith E. Maskus, 2001. "General-Equilibrium Approaches to the Multinational Firm: A Review of Theory and Evidence," NBER Working Papers 8334, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Chen, Feiqiong & Zhong, Fangfang & Chen, Yao, 2014. "Outward foreign direct investment and sovereign risks in developing host country," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 166-172.
    17. Chor, Davin, 2009. "Subsidies for FDI: Implications from a model with heterogeneous firms," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(1), pages 113-125, June.
    18. Leiner, Nadine & Meckl, Jürgen, 1994. "Internationale Migration und Einkommensverteilung: Eine außenhandelstheoretische Analyse," Discussion Papers, Series II 217, University of Konstanz, Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 178 "Internationalization of the Economy".
    19. Thomas A. Gresik, 2001. "The Taxing Task of Taxing Transnationals," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(3), pages 800-838, September.
    20. Glenn Jenkins, 1972. "MEASUREMENT OF THE GAINS FROM FOREIGN OWNED CAPITAL - The Canadian Case," Development Discussion Papers 1972-01, JDI Executive Programs.

    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:nbr:nberwo:0193. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.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.