Globalization and Factor Income Taxation

How has globalization affected the relative taxation of labor and capital, and why To address this question, this paper builds and analyzes a new database of effective macroeconomic tax rates covering 150 countries since 1965, constructed by combin...

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Main Authors: Bachas, Pierre Jean, Fisher-Post, Matthew, Jensen, Anders, Zucman, Gabriel
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: Washington, DC: World Bank 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/790531647369435179/Globalization-and-Factor-Income-Taxation
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37160
id okr-10986-37160
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-371602022-03-18T05:10:44Z Globalization and Factor Income Taxation Bachas, Pierre Jean Fisher-Post, Matthew Jensen, Anders Zucman, Gabriel REDUCTION IN CORPORATE TAX RATES DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH GROUP TAX RATE ON LABOR CAPITAL TAXATION TYPES OF TAX REVENUES NET DOMESTIC PRODUCT How has globalization affected the relative taxation of labor and capital, and why To address this question, this paper builds and analyzes a new database of effective macroeconomic tax rates covering 150 countries since 1965, constructed by combining national accounts data with government revenue statistics. Four main findings are obtained. (1) The effective tax rates on labor and capital have converged globally since the 1960s, due to a 10 percentage-point increase in labor taxation and a 5 percentage-point decline in capital taxation. (2) The decline in capital taxation is concentrated in high-income countries. By contrast, capital taxation has increased in developing countries since the 1990s, albeit from a low base. (3) Consistently across a variety of research designs, the findings show that the rise in capital taxation in developing countries can be explained by a tax capacity effect of international trade: trade openness leads to a concentration of economic activity in formal corporate structures, where capital taxes are easier to impose. (4) At the same time, international economic integration reduces statutory tax rates, due to increased tax competition. In high-income countries, this negative tax competition effect of trade has dominated, while in developing countries, the positive tax-capacity effect of international trade appears to have prevailed. 2022-03-17T17:59:20Z 2022-03-17T17:59:20Z 2022-03-15 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/790531647369435179/Globalization-and-Factor-Income-Taxation http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37160 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank Washington, DC: World Bank Policy Research Working Paper Publications & Research
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic REDUCTION IN CORPORATE TAX RATES
DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH GROUP
TAX RATE ON LABOR
CAPITAL TAXATION
TYPES OF TAX REVENUES
NET DOMESTIC PRODUCT
spellingShingle REDUCTION IN CORPORATE TAX RATES
DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH GROUP
TAX RATE ON LABOR
CAPITAL TAXATION
TYPES OF TAX REVENUES
NET DOMESTIC PRODUCT
Bachas, Pierre Jean
Fisher-Post, Matthew
Jensen, Anders
Zucman, Gabriel
Globalization and Factor Income Taxation
description How has globalization affected the relative taxation of labor and capital, and why To address this question, this paper builds and analyzes a new database of effective macroeconomic tax rates covering 150 countries since 1965, constructed by combining national accounts data with government revenue statistics. Four main findings are obtained. (1) The effective tax rates on labor and capital have converged globally since the 1960s, due to a 10 percentage-point increase in labor taxation and a 5 percentage-point decline in capital taxation. (2) The decline in capital taxation is concentrated in high-income countries. By contrast, capital taxation has increased in developing countries since the 1990s, albeit from a low base. (3) Consistently across a variety of research designs, the findings show that the rise in capital taxation in developing countries can be explained by a tax capacity effect of international trade: trade openness leads to a concentration of economic activity in formal corporate structures, where capital taxes are easier to impose. (4) At the same time, international economic integration reduces statutory tax rates, due to increased tax competition. In high-income countries, this negative tax competition effect of trade has dominated, while in developing countries, the positive tax-capacity effect of international trade appears to have prevailed.
format Working Paper
author Bachas, Pierre Jean
Fisher-Post, Matthew
Jensen, Anders
Zucman, Gabriel
author_facet Bachas, Pierre Jean
Fisher-Post, Matthew
Jensen, Anders
Zucman, Gabriel
author_sort Bachas, Pierre Jean
title Globalization and Factor Income Taxation
title_short Globalization and Factor Income Taxation
title_full Globalization and Factor Income Taxation
title_fullStr Globalization and Factor Income Taxation
title_full_unstemmed Globalization and Factor Income Taxation
title_sort globalization and factor income taxation
publisher Washington, DC: World Bank
publishDate 2022
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/790531647369435179/Globalization-and-Factor-Income-Taxation
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37160
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