This paper posits a two-stage game in tax regime and tax rates to study the property of second-best emission and output taxes in a two-country world with an atmospheric externality. It shows that (i) either the destination-destination or the origin-origin tax regime may constitute the subgame perfect Nash equilibrium of this game; (ii) either regime may Pareto-dominate the other; (iii) it is po...

In principle, a VAT should be neutral with regards to both the level and composition of exports. In practice, this may not be the case because exporters in many countries receive incomplete VAT refunds. When VAT refunds are incomplete, the exports of industries that rely heavily on intermediate goods are especially likely to be negatively a ected by a VAT. Motivated by these considerations, thi...

Asian economic regionalism has emerged from a bottom-up process, driven by market forces in the absence of a grand plan for regional integration. While the financial crisis of 1997–98 triggered new regional cooperation initiatives, more recently several Asian political leaders have formulated proposals for the creation of a regional economic community, suggesting the possible start of a top-dow...

Multinational firms circumvent capital controls by distorting their reported trade patterns, profitability, and dividend repatriations. The changed patterns of reported profits in response to capital controls are comparable to the effects of a 24% difference in corporate tax rates. The costliness of these acts of evasion combined with the significantly higher interest rates faced by multination...

This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF. The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate. This paper provides an updated overview of tax incentives for...

This paper introduces “capital ownership neutrality” (CON) and “national ownership neutrality” (NON) as benchmarks for evaluating the desirability of international tax reforms, and applies them to analyze recent U.S. tax reform proposals. Tax systems satisfy CON if they do not distort the ownership of capital assets, which promotes global efficiency whenever the productivity of an investment di...

The vast increase in foreign assets globally has raised interest in how the home country should tax profits flowing from these investments. Broadly speaking, countries have chosen either to exempt foreign income from taxation or to subject foreign income to taxation with credits/deductions given for foreign taxes paid. Recent research has focused on the effect of these foreign income tax rules ...

Countries around the world continue to tax corporate income at significant rates despite downward pressures from international competition. Average statutory corporate income tax rates fell from 46% in 1982 to 33% in 1999, though tax bases simultaneously broadened, as a result of which average corporate tax collections actually rose from 2.1% of GDP in 1982 to 2.4% of GDP in 1999. Two pieces of...

This paper analyzes the effect of repatriation taxes on dividend payments by the foreign affiliates of American multinational firms. The United States taxes the foreign incomes of American companies, grants credits for any foreign income taxes paid, and defers any taxes due on the unrepatriated earnings for those affiliates that are separately incorporated abroad. This system thereby imposes re...

The local stellar kinematics of the Milky Way, parameterized by the Oort constants A and B, depend on the local gradient of the rotation curve, its absolute value (Θ0), and the distance to the Galactic center (R0). The surface density of interstellar gas in the Milky Way varies non-monotonically with radius, and so contributes significantly to the local gradient of the rotation curve, and the O...