Corporate Taxation and Bilateral FDI with Threshold Barriers

20 Pages Posted: 18 Apr 2005 Last revised: 6 Aug 2022

See all articles by Assaf Razin

Assaf Razin

Tel Aviv University - Eitan Berglas School of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Yona Rubinstein

Tel Aviv University - Eitan Berglas School of Economics

Efraim Sadka

Tel Aviv University - Eitan Berglas School of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute); IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Date Written: March 2005

Abstract

The 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 determimnig the volume of FDI flows (provided that they occur). We demonstrate that the notion that the mere international tax differetials are a key factor behind the direction and magnitude of FDI flows is too simple. We argue that the source country tax rate works primarely on the selection process, whereas the host-country tax rate affect mainly the magnitude of the FDI, once they occur. We analyze international panel data with 24 OECD countries over the period 1981-1998 by the Heckman selection method to bring evidence in support of this argument.

Suggested Citation

Razin, Assaf and Rubinstein, Yona and Sadka, Efraim, Corporate Taxation and Bilateral FDI with Threshold Barriers (March 2005). NBER Working Paper No. w11196, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=684722

Assaf Razin (Contact Author)

Tel Aviv University - Eitan Berglas School of Economics ( email )

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Yona Rubinstein

Tel Aviv University - Eitan Berglas School of Economics ( email )

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Israel
+972 3 640 5828 (Phone)
+972 3 640 9908 (Fax)

Efraim Sadka

Tel Aviv University - Eitan Berglas School of Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 39040
Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, 69978
Israel
+972 3 640 9712 (Phone)
+972 3 642 8074 (Fax)

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

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Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

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Munich, DE-81679
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://www.CESifo.de

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

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