Relocation of the Rich: Migration in Response to Top Tax Rate Changes from Spanish Reforms

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Agrawal, David R.; Foremny, Dirk
• 署名单位: University of Kentucky; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut; University of Barcelona
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_00764
• 发表日期: 2019-05
• 页码: 214-232
• 关键词: millionaire migration; income; taxation; mobility; scheme

摘要

A Spanish reform granted regions the authority to set income tax rates, resulting in substantial tax differentials. Using administrative data, we find that conditional on moving, taxes have a significant effect on location choice. A 1% increase in the net-of-tax rate for a region relative to others increases the probability of moving to that region by 1.7 percentage points. We estimate an elasticity of the number of top taxpayers with respect to net-of-tax rates of 0.85. The mechanical increase in tax revenue due to higher tax rates is larger than the loss in tax revenue from the net outflow of migration.