IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/applec/v47y2015i13p1350-1365.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A spatial model of corporate tax incidence

Author

Listed:
  • Kevin A. Hassett
  • Aparna Mathur

Abstract

Using a unique, self-compiled data-set on international tax rates, we explore the link between taxes and manufacturing wages for a panel of 66 countries over 25years. We find, controlling for other macroeconomic variables, that wages are significantly responsive to corporate taxation. Higher corporate tax rates depress wages. Using spatial modelling techniques, we also find that tax characteristics of neighbouring countries, whether geographic or economic, have a significant effect on domestic wages. We test for, and reject, spatial autocorrelation in our model using a modification of the Moran-I test statistic that accounts for country-specific fixed effects in a panel data setting. Our article fits in with the new economic geography literature as well as the urban economics literature which attempt to explain the spatial distribution of wages.

Suggested Citation

  • Kevin A. Hassett & Aparna Mathur, 2015. "A spatial model of corporate tax incidence," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(13), pages 1350-1365, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:47:y:2015:i:13:p:1350-1365
    DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2014.995367
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00036846.2014.995367
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00036846.2014.995367?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. Jane G. Gravelle, 1994. "The Economic Effects of Taxing Capital Income," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262071584, April.
    2. Dani Rodrik, 1999. "Democracies Pay Higher Wages," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(3), pages 707-738.
    3. Arnold C. Harberger, 1962. "The Incidence of the Corporation Income Tax," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 70(3), pages 215-215.
    4. Martin Feldstein, 1974. "Incidence of a Capital Income Tax in a Growing Economy with Variable Savings Rates," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 41(4), pages 505-513.
    5. Annekatrin Niebuhr, 2006. "Market access and regional disparities," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 40(2), pages 313-334, June.
    6. Andreas Haufler & Ferdinand Mittermaier, 2011. "Unionisation Triggers Tax Incentives to Attract Foreign Direct Investment," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 121(553), pages 793-818, June.
    7. Steven Brakman & Harry Garretsen & Marc Schramm, 2004. "The Spatial Distribution of Wages: Estimating the Helpman‐Hanson Model for Germany," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(3), pages 437-466, August.
    8. Arulampalam, Wiji & Devereux, Michael P. & Maffini, Giorgia, 2012. "The direct incidence of corporate income tax on wages," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(6), pages 1038-1054.
    9. Hanson, Gordon H, 1998. "North American Economic Integration and Industry Location," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 14(2), pages 30-44, Summer.
    10. Devereux, Michael P. & Lockwood, Ben & Redoano, Michela, 2008. "Do countries compete over corporate tax rates?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(5-6), pages 1210-1235, June.
    11. Pedro Amaral & Mauro Lemos & Rodrigo Simões & Flávia Chein, 2010. "Regional Imbalances and Market Potential in Brazil," Spatial Economic Analysis, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(4), pages 463-482.
    12. Martin S. Feldstein, 1974. "Tax Incidence in a Growing Economy with Variable Factor Supply," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 88(4), pages 551-573.
    13. H. Kelejian, Harry & Prucha, Ingmar R., 2001. "On the asymptotic distribution of the Moran I test statistic with applications," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 104(2), pages 219-257, September.
    14. Mutti, John & Grubert, Harry, 1985. "The taxation of capital income in an open economy: the importance of resident-nonresident tax treatment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 291-309, August.
    15. MartÌn Rama, 2003. "Globalization and the Labor Market," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 18(2), pages 159-186.
    16. Devereux, Michael P. & Griffith, Rachel, 1998. "Taxes and the location of production: evidence from a panel of US multinationals," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(3), pages 335-367, June.
    17. Lee, Young & Gordon, Roger H., 2005. "Tax structure and economic growth," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(5-6), pages 1027-1043, June.
    18. Michael P. Devereux & Rachel Griffith & Alexander Klemm, 2002. "Corporate income tax reforms and international tax competition [‘Do domestic firms benefit from direct foreign investment? Evidence from Venezuela’]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 17(35), pages 449-495.
    19. S. Brakman & H Garretsen & M. Schramm, 2003. "The Strategic Bombing of German Cities during World War II and its Impact for Germany," Working Papers 03-09, Utrecht School of Economics.
    20. Bradford, David F., 1978. "Factor prices may be constant but factor returns are not," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 1(3), pages 199-203.
    21. Bernard Fingleton & Julie Le Gallo, 2008. "Estimating spatial models with endogenous variables, a spatial lag and spatially dependent disturbances: Finite sample properties," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 87(3), pages 319-339, August.
    22. Gravelle Jane G & Smetters Kent A., 2006. "Does the Open Economy Assumption Really Mean That Labor Bears the Burden of a Capital Income Tax?," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 6(1), pages 1-44, August.
    23. Julie Le Gallo & Bernard Fingleton, 2008. "Estimating spatial models with endogenous variables, a spatial lag and spatially dependent disturbances : finite sample properties," Post-Print hal-00485035, HAL.
    24. Basinger, Scott J. & Hallerberg, Mark, 2004. "Remodeling the Competition for Capital: How Domestic Politics Erases the Race to the Bottom," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 98(2), pages 261-276, May.
    25. Bernard Fingleton, 2003. "Increasing returns: evidence from local wage rates in Great Britain," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 55(4), pages 716-739, October.
    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. Li, Guangzhong & Wu, Cen & Zheng, Ying, 2020. "Employee protection and the tax sensitivity of wages: International evidence," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    2. R. Alison Felix & James R. Hines, 2022. "Corporate taxes and union wages in the United States," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 29(6), pages 1450-1494, December.
    3. Knaisch, Jonas & Pöschel, Carla, 2021. "Corporate Tax Incidence and Wages: A Meta-Regression Analysis," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 262, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre, revised 2021.
    4. Fabien Candau & Jacques Le Cacheux, 2018. "Taming Tax Competition with a European Corporate Income Tax," Revue d'économie politique, Dalloz, vol. 128(4), pages 575-611.
    5. Schochet, Sholom & Benlemlih, Mohammed & Jaballah, Jamil, 2022. "Is corporate tax avoidance related to employee treatment?," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 63-80.

    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. Nelly Exbrayat & Benny Geys, 2016. "Economic Integration, Corporate Tax Incidence and Fiscal Compensation," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(11), pages 1792-1811, November.
    2. Liu, Li & Altshuler, Rosanne, 2013. "Measuring the Burden of the Corporate Income Tax Under Imperfect Competition," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 66(1), pages 215-237, March.
    3. Fullerton, Don & Metcalf, Gilbert E., 2002. "Tax incidence," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 26, pages 1787-1872, Elsevier.
    4. Clemens Fuest & Andreas Peichl & Sebastian Siegloch, 2018. "Do Higher Corporate Taxes Reduce Wages? Micro Evidence from Germany," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(2), pages 393-418, February.
    5. Andrzej Cieślik & Bartłomiej Rokicki, 2016. "European Integration and Spatial Wage Structure in Poland," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 107(4), pages 435-453, September.
    6. Nadja Dwenger & Pia Rattenhuber & Viktor Steiner, 2019. "Sharing the Burden? Empirical Evidence on Corporate Tax Incidence," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 20(4), pages 107-140, November.
    7. Thomas K. Bauer & Tanja Kasten & Lars-H. R. Siemers, 2017. "Business Taxation and Wages: Redistribution and Asymmetric Effects," MAGKS Papers on Economics 201732, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    8. Nils aus dem Moore, 2014. "Shifting the Burden of Corporate Taxes: Heterogeneity in Direct Wage Incidence," Ruhr Economic Papers 0531, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    9. Zodrow, George R. & Diamond, John W., 2013. "Dynamic Overlapping Generations Computable General Equilibrium Models and the Analysis of Tax Policy: The Diamond–Zodrow Model," Handbook of Computable General Equilibrium Modeling, in: Peter B. Dixon & Dale Jorgenson (ed.), Handbook of Computable General Equilibrium Modeling, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 743-813, Elsevier.
    10. aus dem Moore, Nils, 2014. "Shifting the Burden of Corporate Taxes: Heterogeneity in Direct Wage Incidence," Ruhr Economic Papers 531, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    11. Fuest, Clemens & Peichl, Andreas & Siegloch, Sebastian, 2015. "Do Higher Corporate Taxes Reduce Wages?," IZA Discussion Papers 9606, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Céline Azémar & R. Glenn Hubbard, 2015. "Country characteristics and the incidence of capital income taxation on wages: An empirical assessment," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 48(5), pages 1762-1802, December.
    13. repec:zbw:rwirep:0531 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Clemens Fuest & Andreas Peichl & Sebastian Siegloch, 2012. "Which Workers Bear the Burden of Corporate Taxation and Which Firms Can Pass It On? Micro Evidence from Germany," Working Papers 1216, Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation.
    15. Fuest, Clemens & Gründler, Klaus & Potrafke, Niklas & Ruthardt, Fabian, 2024. "Read my lips? Taxes and elections," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 236(C).
    16. Juan Carlos Suárez Serrato & Owen Zidar, 2016. "Who Benefits from State Corporate Tax Cuts? A Local Labor Markets Approach with Heterogeneous Firms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(9), pages 2582-2624, September.
    17. Norman Gemmell & Richard Kneller & Ismael Sanz, 2014. "The growth effects of tax rates in the OECD," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 47(4), pages 1217-1255, November.
    18. Mittermaier, Ferdinand & Rincke, Johannes, 2013. "Do countries compensate firms for international wage differentials?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 23-36.
    19. Salvador Barrios & Gaetan Nicodeme & Antonio Jesus Sanchez Fuentes, 2014. "Effective Corporate Taxation, Tax Incidence and Tax Reforms: Evidence from OECD Countries," Taxation Papers 45, Directorate General Taxation and Customs Union, European Commission.
    20. Alan Auerbach & Michael P Devereux & Helen Simpson, 2007. "Taxing corporate income," Working Papers 0705, Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation.
    21. Escobar Gamboa, Octavio Romano, 2009. "IDE entrants, exportations et productivité manufacturière : les différentes performances des régions mexicaines," Economics Thesis from University Paris Dauphine, Paris Dauphine University, number 123456789/3850 edited by Guillochon, Bernard.

    More about this item

    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:taf:applec:v:47:y:2015:i:13:p:1350-1365. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RAEC20 .

    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.