IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/bejeap/v7y2007i1n1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Regional Integration, Subsidy Competition and the Relocation Choice of MNCs

Author

Listed:
  • Albornoz Facundo

    (University of Birmingham)

  • Corcos Gregory

    (NHH - Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration)

Abstract

Regional integration makes relocation a more attractive option for Multinational Corporations (MNC), influencing in turn the provision of investment incentives by member countries. We examine in this context the effects of subsidy competition. To do so, we model the strategic interaction between two governments offering subsidies to a MNC facing different location alternatives, which involve relocation and plant closure. Our welfare analysis shows that the combination of regional integration and subsidy competition may lead to suboptimally high levels of subsidization. We also discuss how the desirability of harmonizing subsidies (by banning them), and the net gains from integration crucially depend on technological differences, ownership, and on corporate tax rates. For instance, a simple agreement on avoiding subsidies generally raises welfare if the MNC belongs to an extra-regional country. This is not the case for a regional MNC. Lastly, we find that the gain from regional subsidy coordination increases with integration.

Suggested Citation

  • Albornoz Facundo & Corcos Gregory, 2007. "Regional Integration, Subsidy Competition and the Relocation Choice of MNCs," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 1-27, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:bejeap:v:7:y:2007:i:1:n:1
    DOI: 10.2202/1935-1682.1641
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.2202/1935-1682.1641
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2202/1935-1682.1641?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Haufler, Andreas & Wooton, Ian, 1999. "Country size and tax competition for foreign direct investment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 121-139, January.
    2. Andrew Charlton, 2003. "Incentive Bidding for Mobile Investment: Economic Consequences and Potential Responses," OECD Development Centre Working Papers 203, OECD Publishing.
    3. Ludema, Rodney D. & Wooton, Ian, 2000. "Economic geography and the fiscal effects of regional integration," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 331-357, December.
    4. J. Peter Neary, 2002. "Foreign Direct Investment and the Single Market," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 70(3), pages 291-314, June.
    5. Baldwin, Richard E. & Krugman, Paul, 2004. "Agglomeration, integration and tax harmonisation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 1-23, February.
    6. Raff, Horst, 2004. "Preferential trade agreements and tax competition for foreign direct investment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(12), pages 2745-2763, December.
    7. Vincent Dupont & Philippe Martin, 2006. "Subsidies to poor regions and inequalities: some unpleasant arithmetic," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 6(2), pages 223-240, April.
    8. Motta, Massimo & Norman, George, 1996. "Does Economic Integration Cause Foreign Direct Investment?," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 37(4), pages 757-783, November.
    9. Wilson, John Douglas, 1999. "Theories of Tax Competition," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 52(2), pages 269-304, June.
    10. Head, C. Keith & Ries, John C. & Swenson, Deborah L., 1999. "Attracting foreign manufacturing: Investment promotion and agglomeration," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 197-218, March.
    11. Janeba, Eckhard, 1998. "Tax competition in imperfectly competitive markets," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 135-153, February.
    12. Daniel Chudnovsky (coordinador) & José María Fanelli (coordinador) & Enrique V. Iglesias (prólogo) & Julio Berlinski & Gustavo bittencourt & Roberto Bouzas & Gustavo Britto & Germán Calfat & Daniel Ch, 2001. "El desafio de integrarse para crecer. Balance y perspectiva del MERCOSUR en su primera década," Serie Red MERCOSUR, Red Mercosur, edition 1, volume 1, number 4 edited by Red MERCOSUR, Spring.
    13. Gordon H. HANSON, 2001. "Should Countries Promote Foreign Direct Investment?," G-24 Discussion Papers 9, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
    14. Wilson, John Douglas, 1999. "Theories of Tax Competition," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 52(n. 2), pages 269-304, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Adams, Laurel & Régibeau, Pierre & Rockett, Katharine, 2014. "Incentives to create jobs: Regional subsidies, national trade policy and foreign direct investment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 102-119.
    2. Susan Mason & Kenneth P. Thomas, 2010. "Tax Increment Financing in Missouri: An Analysis of Determinants, Competitive Dynamics, Equity, and Path Dependency," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 24(2), pages 169-179, May.
    3. Adriana Giurgiu, 2012. "Investment Incentives and the Global Competition for Capital – By K.P. Thomas," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 190-190, January.
    4. Nicolai J Foss & Ram Mudambi & Samuele Murtinu, 2019. "Taxing the multinational enterprise: On the forced redesign of global value chains and other inefficiencies," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(9), pages 1644-1655, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Facundo Albornoz & Gregory Corcos, 2005. "Subsidy Competition in Integrating Economies," Discussion Papers 05-14, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham.
    2. Haufler, Andreas & Wooton, Ian, 2006. "The effects of regional tax and subsidy coordination on foreign direct investment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 285-305, February.
    3. BEHRENS, Kristian & PICARD, Pierre M., 2005. "Tax competition, location, and horizontal foreign direct investment," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2005091, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    4. Facundo Albornoz, Gregory Corcos and Toby Kendall, 2005. "Subsidy Competition and the Mode of FDI: Acquisition vs Greenfield," Discussion Papers 05-15, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham.
    5. Rainald Borck & Hyun‐Ju Koh & Michael Pflüger, 2012. "Inefficient Lock‐In And Subsidy Competition," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 53(4), pages 1179-1204, November.
    6. Amina Lahrèche-Révil, 2006. "Who’s Afraid of Tax Competition? Harmless Tax Competition from the New European Member States," Working Papers 2006-11, CEPII research center.
    7. Agnès Bénassy-Quéré & Lionel Fontagné & Amina Lahrèche-Révil, 2005. "How Does FDI React to Corporate Taxation?," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 12(5), pages 583-603, September.
    8. Raff, Horst, 2004. "Preferential trade agreements and tax competition for foreign direct investment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(12), pages 2745-2763, December.
    9. Becker, Sascha O. & Egger, Peter H. & Merlo, Valeria, 2012. "How low business tax rates attract MNE activity: Municipality-level evidence from Germany," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(9-10), pages 698-711.
    10. Ottaviano, Gianmarco I.P. & van Ypersele, Tanguy, 2005. "Market size and tax competition," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 25-46, September.
    11. Ronald B. Davies & Hartmut Egger & Peter Egger, 2003. "Tax Competition for International Producers and the Mode of Foreign Market Entry," University of Oregon Economics Department Working Papers 2006-19, University of Oregon Economics Department, revised 10 Jun 2003.
    12. Peter Egger & Horst Raff, 2015. "Tax rate and tax base competition for foreign direct investment," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 22(5), pages 777-810, October.
    13. Pasquale Commendatore & Ingrid Kubin, 2016. "Source versus residence: A comparison from a new economic geography perspective," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 95(2), pages 201-222, June.
    14. Andreas Haufler & Michael Pflüger, 2004. "International Commodity Taxation under Monopolistic Competition," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 6(3), pages 445-470, August.
    15. Wilson, John Douglas & Wildasin, David E., 2004. "Capital tax competition: bane or boon," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(6), pages 1065-1091, June.
    16. Ben Ferrett & Ian Wooton, 2010. "Competing for a duopoly: international trade and tax competition," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 43(3), pages 776-794, August.
    17. Bruce A. Blonigen & Van Kolpin, 2007. "Technology, agglomeration, and regional competition for investment," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 40(4), pages 1149-1167, November.
    18. Vincent Delbecque, 2008. "Tax Competition and Foreign Direct Investment: assessing the role of market potential and trade costs in a "Footloose Capital" framework," EconomiX Working Papers 2008-18, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    19. Yongzheng Liu, 2016. "Do government preferences matter for tax competition?," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 23(2), pages 343-367, April.
    20. Jie Ma, 2013. "Market Size, Local Sourcing and Policy Competition for Foreign Direct Investment," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(5), pages 984-995, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:bejeap:v:7:y:2007:i:1:n:1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.