The relative constancy of nonfinancial corporate tax revenues as a share of U.S. GDP masks offsetting trends in the ratio of corporate profits to GDP (declining) and the average tax rate (increasing). The average tax rate rose steadily between 1996 and 2003, an increase largely attributable to the importance of tax losses. This rise casts some doubt on the role of tax planning activities in red...

This paper evaluates the impact of a training voucher program on establishments’ investments in further training. The voucher program that was implemented in the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia increased training incentives for employees in small and medium-sized establishments by reducing training costs by 50%. The estimation is based on a quasi-experimental research design expl...

This paper analyzes asymmetric tax competition under formula apportionment. It sets up a model with multinationals where two welfare-maximizing jurisdictions of different size levy source-based corporate taxes and allocate taxes using the formula approach. At the Nash equilibrium, tax rates are too low and public goods quantities are to small. The paper shows that the larger country levies a la...

The aim of this paper is to make a first step towards studying the role of social expenditure and its interaction with corporate taxation in determining the destination of foreign direct investment (FDI) flows. Using panel data for 18 OECD countries and measuring the extent of social welfare policies by the (public social expenditure)/GDP ratio, we find strong support for the conjecture that re...

We use a change in Canadian tax law to examine how small private firms respond to the R&D tax credit. Our estimates imply an R&D user-cost elasticity above unity. Contract R&D expenditures are more elastic than the R&D wage bill. Firms that perform contract research or recently invested in R&D capital are more responsive to a change in the after-tax cost of R&D. We interpret the latter findings...

This paper estimates the role of both tax and non-tax determinants in the choice in Sweden to be a closely-held corporation vs. a proprietorship, using individual data for 2004 to 2008 on owners of closely-held businesses. While lower-income individuals face relatively neutral incentives, higher income individuals face strong tax incentives to be corporate. The data suggest a relatively strong ...

We quantify the importance of imperfect competition in US labor market by estimating size rents earned American firms and workers. construct a matched employer-employee panel dataset combining universe business worker tax records for period 2001–2015. Using this data, we identify estimate an equilibrium model with two-sided heterogeneity where workers view as substitutes because heterogeneous p...

The canonical model of Allingham and Sandmo (1972) predicts that firms evade taxes by optimally trading off between the costs benefits evasion. However, there is no direct evidence react to audits in this way. We conducted a large-scale field experiment collaboration with tax authority address question. sent letters 20,440 small- medium-sized collectively paid more than US$200 million per year....

We present a new estimator for causal effects with panel data that builds on insights behind the widely used difference-in-differences and synthetic control methods. Relative to these methods we find, both theoretically empirically, this “synthetic difference-in-differences” has desirable robustness properties, it performs well in settings where conventional estimators are commonly practice. st...