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Vying for Foreign Direct Investment: A EU-type Model of Tax Competition

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  • Assaf Razin
  • Efraim Sadka

Abstract

This paper brings out the special mechanism through which taxes influence bilateral FDI, when investment decisions are two-fold in the presence of fixed setup flows costs. For each pair of source-host countries, there is a set of factors determining whether aggregate FDI flows will occur at all, and a different set of factors determining the volume of FDI flows (provided they occur). We develop a two-country tax competition model which yield an asymmetric Nash-equilibrium with high corporate tax rate and high level of public good provision in the rich source country for FDI outflows and with low corporate tax rate and low level of public good provision in the poor host country for FDI outflows. This is akin to the asymmetry among the EU 15 and EU 10 in the enlarged European Union, as of 2004. We also demonstrate that the notion that the mere international tax differentials are a key factor behind the direction and magnitude of FDI flows, the traditional race to the bottom argument in tax competition are too simple.

Suggested Citation

  • Assaf Razin & Efraim Sadka, 2006. "Vying for Foreign Direct Investment: A EU-type Model of Tax Competition," NBER Working Papers 11991, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11991
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    Cited by:

    1. Åsa Marie Hansson & Karin Olofsdotter, 2013. "FDI, Taxes and Agglomeration Economies in the EU15," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(23), pages 3387-3387, August.
    2. Sabina Silajdzic & Eldin Mehic, 2022. "How Effective Is Tax Policy in Attracting Foreign Direct Investments in Transition Countries?," Central European Business Review, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2022(1), pages 19-39.
    3. Eicher, Theo S. & Helfman, Lindy & Lenkoski, Alex, 2012. "Robust FDI determinants: Bayesian Model Averaging in the presence of selection bias," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 637-651.
    4. Copenhagen Economics, 2011. "Elasticities of Financial Instruments, Profits and Remuneration," Taxation Papers 30, Directorate General Taxation and Customs Union, European Commission.
    5. Åsa Hansson & Karin Olofsdotter, 2014. "Labor Taxation and FDI Decisions in the European Union," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 263-287, April.
    6. Jorge Martinez-Vazquez & Violeta Vulovic & Yongzheng Liu, 2011. "Direct versus Indirect Taxation: Trends, Theory, and Economic Significance," Chapters, in: Emilio Albi & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez (ed.), The Elgar Guide to Tax Systems, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.

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