Do Agglomeration Economies Reduce the Sensitivity of Firm Location to Tax Differentials?

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Type
Report: a report published by a school or other institution, usually numbered within a series.
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Working paper: Working papers contain results presented by the author. Working papers aim to stimulate discussions between scientists with interested parties, they can also be the basis to publish articles in specialized journals
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Title
Do Agglomeration Economies Reduce the Sensitivity of Firm Location to Tax Differentials?
Author(s)
Brülhart M., Jametti M., Schmidheiny K.
Institution details
Université de Lausanne - HEC - DEEP
Issued date
12/2007
Number
07.13
Genre
Cahiers de recherches économiques
Language
english
Number of pages
35
Notes
Published in : The Economic Journal, 122(563), September 2012, pp. 1069-1093
Abstract
Low corporate taxes can help attract new .firms. This is the main mechanism underpinning the standard "race-to-the-bottom" view of tax competition. A recent theoretical literature has qualified this view by formalizing the argument that agglomeration forces can reduce firms' sensitivity to tax differentials across locations. We test this proposition using data on firm startups across Swiss municipalities. We find that, on average, high corporate income taxes do deter new firms, but that this relationship is significantly weaker in the most spatially concentrated sectors. Location choices of firms in sectors with an agglomeration intensity at the twentieth percentile of the sample distribution are estimated to be twice as responsive to a given difference in local corporate tax burdens as firms in sectors with an agglomeration intensity at the eightieth percentile. Hence, our analysis confirms the theoretical prediction: agglomeration economies can neutralize the impact of tax differentials on firms' location choices.
Keywords
firm location, agglomeration economies, local taxation, count models, Switzerland
Create date
15/08/2013 16:23
Last modification date
21/08/2019 7:10
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