Why do most countries set high tax rates on capital?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Marceau, Nicolas; Mongrain, Steeve; Wilson, John D.
• 署名单位: Simon Fraser University; University of Quebec; University of Quebec Montreal; Michigan State University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-1996
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2009.09.002
• 发表日期: 2010
• 页码: 249-259
• 关键词: Tax competition; capital mobility

摘要

We consider tax competition in a world with tax bases exhibiting different degrees of mobility, modeled as mobile and immobile capital An agreement among countries not to give preferential treatment to mobile capital results in an equilibrium where mobile capital is nevertheless taxed relatively lightly In particular, one or two of the smallest countries, measured by their stocks of immobile capital, choose relatively low tax rates, thereby attracting mobile capital away from the other countries, which are then left to set revenue-maximizing taxes on their immobile capital This conclusion holds regardless of whether countries choose their tax policies sequentially or simultaneously In contrast, unrestricted competition for mobile capital results in the preferential treatment of mobile capital by all countries, without cross-country differences in the taxation of mobile capital Nevertheless our main result is that the non-preferential regime generates larger expected global tax revenue, despite the sizable revenue loss from the emergence of low-tax countries By extending the analysis to include cross-country differences in productivities. we are able to resurrect a case for preferential regimes, but only if the productivity differences are sufficiently large (C) 2009 Elsevier B V. All rights reserved.