IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/2007.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Tax Policy and International Competitiveness

Author

Listed:
  • Lawrence H. Summers

Abstract

This paper examines the interactions between tax policy, international capitol mobility, and international competitiveness. It demonstrates that tax policies which stimulate national investment without affecting national savings must inevitably lead to deterioration in a country's trade balance in the short and intermediate run. This conclusion, which contradicts a great deal of popular rhetoric highlights the importance of considering the macroeconomic as well as the microeconomic aspects of tax changes. Yore generally, the effects of tax policies depend critically on the extent of the international capital flows which they generate. The paper examines the issue of international capital mobility both theoretically and empirically. A variety of considerations suggest that while tax policies could generate large capital flows, governments pursue policies which tend to inhibit capital flows following tax changes. This makes the analysis of tax policies difficult.

Suggested Citation

  • Lawrence H. Summers, 1986. "Tax Policy and International Competitiveness," NBER Working Papers 2007, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:2007
    Note: PE
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w2007.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Feldstein, Martin & Horioka, Charles, 1980. "Domestic Saving and International Capital Flows," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 90(358), pages 314-329, June.
    2. Obstfeld, Maurice, 1986. "Capital mobility in the world economy: Theory and measurement," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 55-103, January.
    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. Herwartz, H. & Xu, F., 2010. "A functional coefficient model view of the Feldstein-Horioka puzzle," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 37-54, February.
    2. Daniel Levy, 1995. "Investment-saving comovement under endogenous fiscal policy," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 6(3), pages 237-254, July.
    3. Axel Börsch‐Supan & Alexander Ludwig & Joachim Winter, 2006. "Ageing, Pension Reform and Capital Flows: A Multi‐Country Simulation Model," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 73(292), pages 625-658, November.
    4. Tomislav Globan & Petar Sorić, 2017. "Financial integration before and after the crisis: Euler equations (re)visit European Union," EFZG Working Papers Series 1702, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb.
    5. Qizilbash, M., 1995. "Egalitarian justice, capability and well-being prospects," Discussion Paper Series In Economics And Econometrics 9516, Economics Division, School of Social Sciences, University of Southampton.
    6. Frédéric Zumer & Jacques Mélitz, 2002. "Partage du risque dans l'Union européenne. Expériences interrégionales et internationales," Revue de l'OFCE, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 0(5), pages 299-323.
    7. Nagayasu, Jun, 2012. "The threshold consumption correlation-based approach to international capital mobility: Evidence from advanced and developing countries," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 256-263.
    8. Chakrabarti, Avik, 2006. "The saving-investment relationship revisited: New evidence from multivariate heterogeneous panel cointegration analyses," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 402-419, June.
    9. Sun, Lixing, 2004. "Measuring time-varying capital mobility in East Asia," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 281-291.
    10. Costantini, Mauro & Gutierrez, Luciano, 2013. "Capital mobility and global factor shocks," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 120(3), pages 513-515.
    11. Kateřina Šímová, 2020. "Verification of Feldstein-Horioka Puzzle (Example of European Union Countries) [Verifikace Feldsteinovy-Horiokovy hádanky (příklad zemí Evropské unie)]," Český finanční a účetní časopis, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2020(2), pages 43-60.
    12. Epstien, Gerald & Gintis, Herbert, 1989. "International Capital Markets and the Limits of National Economic Policy," WIDER Working Papers 295606, United Nations University, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    13. repec:zbw:bofrdp:1990_011 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Jérome Hericourt & Mathilde Maurel, 2006. "A new look at the Feldstein-Horioka puzzle: a European-regional perspective," Brussels Economic Review, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles, vol. 49(2), pages 147-168.
    15. Jan Lemmen & Sylvester Eijffinger, 1995. "The quantity approach to financial integration: The Feldstein-Horioka criterion revisited," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 6(2), pages 145-165, April.
    16. Joseph P. Byrne & Giorgio Fazio & Norbert Fiess, 2009. "The Global Side of the Investment‐Saving Puzzle," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 41(5), pages 1033-1040, August.
    17. Dekle, Robert, 1996. "Saving-investment associations and capital mobility On the evidence from Japanese regional data," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(1-2), pages 53-72, August.
    18. Keith Sill, 2001. "The gains from international risk-sharing," Business Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, issue Q3, pages 23-32.
    19. Taylor, Alan M., 2002. "A century of current account dynamics," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 21(6), pages 725-748, November.
    20. Engel, Charles & Kletzer, Kenneth, 1989. "Saving and Investment in an Open Economy with Non-traded Goods," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 30(4), pages 735-752, November.
    21. Apergis, Nicholas & Tsoumas, Chris, 2009. "A survey of the Feldstein-Horioka puzzle: What has been done and where we stand," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 64-76, June.

    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:nbr:nberwo:2007. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.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.