| Srl | Item |
| 1 |
ID:
126548
|
|
|
|
|
| Publication |
2013.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
Political scientists have examined how domestic politics and the competition for international capital affect the setting of national tax rates. In this paper, I explore how political institutions, specifically the level of democracy, affect firm-level taxation across the world. I argue that electoral competition leads democratic governments to higher levels of taxation of firms. Using a data set on firm tax payments on the foreign affiliates of US multinational corporations from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, I show that there are large variations within countries on the tax burdens faced by firms that are not explained by national tax rates. I find evidence that the mobility of the specific investment project, the types of spillovers these investments provide to a community, and attributes of the parent firm are all important determinants of taxation. While firm-level factors clearly affect corporate taxation, I argue that democratic institutions limit the offering of tax incentives and generate electoral benefits to policing tax avoidance by multinational corporations. After controlling for parent firm and foreign affiliate-level factors, I find that democratic countries generate as much as 26% more tax revenues from multinational corporations relative to authoritarian countries.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 2 |
ID:
128393
|
|
|
|
|
| Publication |
2014.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
The August 2013 gross domestic product report by the US Bureau of Economic Analysis drew little attention, but it contained a fairly remarkable piece of data: Inflation-adjusted GDP per capita in the United States hit a new all-time high in the second quarter of 2013, the first time a new high had been reached since 2007. Real consumer spending has hit a new high, too, and auto sales are at levels not seen since before the financial crisis. Millions of Americans are still searching for work and suffering financial hardship, but on average, by the broadest measures of economic performance, America's Great Recession is over. Few nations across the Atlantic can say the same. The eurozone slipped back into recession in 2012 for the second time in four years, and remains in an economic state that can be accurately described as miserable. Real economic output among eurozone nations remains three percentage points below its 2008 peak. Eurozone unemployment sits near twelve percent in late 2013, higher than the US ever experienced at the peak of its recession. These problems are as deeply human as they are economic or political. Each percentage point rise in Europe's unemployment rate has boosted its suicide rate by 0.79 percent, according to a study published in the medical journal the Lancet.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|