IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eis/articl/224hartfield.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What determines tax havens? A historical investigation of tax haven factors

Author

Listed:
  • A Hartfield
  • C Liu
  • M H Sheikh

Abstract

This paper analyses the determining factors of tax haven status by investigating the factors from a historical perspective. Initially, we use tax variables, governance variables and a communication indicator to check if these factors can distinguish tax haven countries from non-tax havens, based on two data sets in 2006 and 2018. We apply principal component analysis combined with Welch’s t-test and logit model analysis. We find that collectively, the historical tax haven factors are outdated for 2018 data. Individually, historical tax haven criteria are not significant in explaining tax haven status, and alternative criteria and variables, such as the financial secrecy score, are required.

Suggested Citation

  • A Hartfield & C Liu & M H Sheikh, 2024. "What determines tax havens? A historical investigation of tax haven factors," Economic Issues Journal Articles, Economic Issues, vol. 29(2), pages 29-56, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eis:articl:224hartfield
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.economicissues.org.uk/Files/2024/EI_Autumn2024_hartfield.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Desai, Mihir A. & Foley, C. Fritz & Hines, James Jr., 2006. "The demand for tax haven operations," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(3), pages 513-531, February.
    2. Marius Eugen Radu, 2016. "Perfect Tax Haven between Myth and Truth," Knowledge Horizons - Economics, Faculty of Finance, Banking and Accountancy Bucharest,"Dimitrie Cantemir" Christian University Bucharest, vol. 8(1), pages 93-95, March.
    3. Jonathan Temple & Ludger Wößmann, 2006. "Dualism and cross-country growth regressions," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 11(3), pages 187-228, September.
    4. Thomas Tørsløv & Ludvig Wier & Gabriel Zucman, 2023. "The Missing Profits of Nations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 90(3), pages 1499-1534.
    5. Niels Johannesen & Gabriel Zucman, 2014. "The End of Bank Secrecy? An Evaluation of the G20 Tax Haven Crackdown," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 6(1), pages 65-91, February.
    6. AndrewK. Rose & MarkM. Spiegel, 2007. "Offshore Financial Centres: Parasites or Symbionts?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 117(523), pages 1310-1335, October.
    7. Dharmapala, Dhammika & Hines Jr., James R., 2009. "Which countries become tax havens?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(9-10), pages 1058-1068, October.
    8. Slemrod, Joel, 2004. "Are corporate tax rates, or countries, converging?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(6), pages 1169-1186, June.
    9. Dischinger, Matthias & Riedel, Nadine, 2011. "Corporate taxes and the location of intangible assets within multinational firms," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(7-8), pages 691-707, August.
    10. Desai, Mihir A. & Foley, C. Fritz & Hines, James Jr., 2006. "Do tax havens divert economic activity?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 90(2), pages 219-224, February.
    11. McFadden, Daniel, 1974. "The measurement of urban travel demand," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 303-328, November.
    12. Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson & James A. Robinson, 2001. "The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(5), pages 1369-1401, December.
    13. Petr Janský & Ondřej Kokeš, 2015. "Corporate tax base erosion and profit shifting out of the Czech Republic," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(4), pages 537-546, December.
    14. Hampton, Mark P. & Christensen, John, 2002. "Offshore Pariahs? Small Island Economies, Tax Havens, and the Re-configuration of Global Finance," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(9), pages 1657-1673, September.
    15. James R. Hines & Eric M. Rice, 1994. "Fiscal Paradise: Foreign Tax Havens and American Business," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(1), pages 149-182.
    16. Dhammika Dharmapala, 2008. "What problems and opportunities are created by tax havens?," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 24(4), pages 661-679, winter.
    17. Lawrence Kenny & Stanley Winer, 2006. "Tax Systems in the World: An Empirical Investigation into the Importance of Tax Bases, Administration Costs, Scale and Political Regime," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 13(2), pages 181-215, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Vincent Bouvatier & Gunther Capelle-Blancard & Anne-Laure Delatte, 2017. "Banks Defy Gravity in Tax Havens," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-03101505, HAL.
    2. Dharmapala, Dhammika & Hines Jr., James R., 2009. "Which countries become tax havens?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(9-10), pages 1058-1068, October.
    3. Jones, Chris & Temouri, Yama, 2016. "The determinants of tax haven FDI," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 237-250.
    4. Blanco Luisa R. & Rogers Cynthia L., 2012. "Do Tax Havens Really Flourish?," Global Economy Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 12(3), pages 1-23, September.
    5. Shafik Hebous, 2014. "Money at the Docks of Tax Havens: A Guide," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 70(3), pages 458-485, September.
    6. Hsun Chu, 2014. "Tax Enforcement Policy and the Provision of Public Goods with the Presence of Tax Havens," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 61(3), pages 304-321, July.
    7. Jones, Chris & Temouri, Yama & Cobham, Alex, 2018. "Tax haven networks and the role of the Big 4 accountancy firms," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 177-193.
    8. Alfons J. Weichenrieder & Fangying Xu, 2019. "Are tax havens good? Implications of the crackdown on secrecy," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 127(2), pages 147-160, July.
    9. Schwarz, Peter, 2011. "Money launderers and tax havens: Two sides of the same coin?," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 37-47, March.
    10. Damgaard, Jannick & Elkjaer, Thomas & Johannesen, Niels, 2024. "What is real and what is not in the global FDI network?," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    11. Pieretti, Patrice & Pulina, Giuseppe, 2024. "A game-theoretic analysis of international tax compliance," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    12. Konrad, Kai A. & Stolper, Tim B.M., 2016. "Coordination and the fight against tax havens," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 96-107.
    13. Slemrod, Joel & Wilson, John D., 2009. "Tax competition with parasitic tax havens," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(11-12), pages 1261-1270, December.
    14. Dhammika Dharmapala, 2008. "What problems and opportunities are created by tax havens?," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 24(4), pages 661-679, winter.
    15. K. V. Mukundhan & Sreevas Sahasranamam & James J. Cordeiro, 2019. "Corporate investments in tax havens: evidence from India," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 18(5), pages 360-388, November.
    16. Fernando, Garcia Alvarado & Antoine, Mandel, 2022. "The network structure of global tax evasion evidence from the Panama papers," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 660-684.
    17. Fatica, Serena & Gregori, Wildmer, 2018. "Profit shifting by EU banks: evidence from country-by-country reporting," JRC Working Papers in Economics and Finance 2018-04, Joint Research Centre, European Commission.
    18. Samuel Rueckert Brazys, 2014. "Paradise Lost: The Cost of Removing Tax and Trade Provisions from the Compact of Free Association," Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 1(1), pages 204-215, January.
    19. Hebous, Shafik & Johannesen, Niels, 2021. "At your service! The role of tax havens in international trade with services," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    20. Hoang Ha Nguyen Thi & Alfons Weichenrieder, 2023. "Tax Haven Welfare and the Crackdown on Secrecy: Evidence from Night Light Emissions," CESifo Working Paper Series 10721, CESifo.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    historical criteria; tax havens; principal component analysis; Welch’s test; logit models;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F5 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy
    • A14 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Sociology of Economics
    • C50 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - General
    • H2 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:eis:articl:224hartfield. 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: Dan Wheatley (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bsntuuk.html .

    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.