光华讲坛——博士论坛2014年第2期
主 题：Corporate Tax Policy Interactions: Keeping Up with the Neighbors?

主 讲 人：西南财经大学财税学院 肖承睿博士

主 持 人：西南财经大学财政税务学院杨良松讲师

时 间：2014年10月16日（星期四）15:30

地 点：通博楼C216

主办单位：西南财经大学财税学院、科研处


内容摘要：

This paper investigatesdynamic interactions of neighboring countries’ corporate TSR changes and leader-follower behavior in international corporate tax competition. Thispapercontributes to the existing corporate tax competition literature in three ways. First, thispapernot only studies OECD and European countries, but also includes other developing countries. To the best of my knowledge, this research uses a larger sample than previously used in the international corporate competition literature. With 139 countries from 1981 to 2011, the sample provides a more comprehensive picture about how corporate tax policies in different countries interact with each other. Second, compared to the previous empirical literature focusing on corporate tax rate levels, thischapterstudies the actual corporate tax rate changes. That is, thischapterinvestigates thefactors which influencegovernments to adopt corporate tax decreases, as well as increases. Third, this paper also sheds light on the dynamic nature of international corporate tax competition and provides some evidence about which countries are more likely to be leaders and which countries are more likely to be followers in the competition.

The results suggest several interesting artifacts concerning corporate TSR changes. First, neighboring countries dynamically interact with each other regarding corporate TSR changes. Countries are more responsive to neighbors’ corporate TSR decreases than increases. Also, countries are sensitive to neighbors’ corporate TSR changes in the previous year, but not two or three years ago. Second, most of the explanatory variables, such as neighboring countries’ corporate TSR increases and decreases, trade and capital openness and GDP level, have asymmetric even opposite estimated effects on countries’ corporate TSR changes. Third, the structure of corporate tax competition is nuanced. Countries respond to each other both contemporaneously and dynamically regarding corporate tax policies. Fourth, there is no conclusive evidence about which countries are leaders and which countries are followers in the dynamic international corporate tax competition. I separate countries into two groups according to their economic characteristics, and test for asymmetric responses between two groups.The results suggest thatdeveloped countries and tax havens are more likely to be leaders than other countries.Corporate TSR changes adopted by emerging market countries have significant contemporaneous effects on developed countries’ corporate TSR policies.

The OECD and EU have been trying to harness international tax competition and to encourage cooperation among member countries regarding tax policies. However, the effects of these efforts are limited. Corporate tax rates have been decreasing and the numbers of corporate TSR decreases have been increasing over the last thirty years. The previous methods, such as common consolidated corporate tax base, don’t seem to be working due to the nature of the competition. As a result, policymakers may consider some new measures to attenuate international corporate tax competition.