Corporate taxation and productivity catch-up: evidence from European firms

This paper explores whether higher corporate tax rates reduce the speed with which small firms converge to the productivity frontier by lowering the after-tax returns to productivity-enhancing investments. Using data for 11 European countries we find evidence that their productivity catch-up is slow...

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Main Authors: Gemmell, Norman, Kneller, Richard, McGowan, Danny, Sanz, Ismael, Sanz-Sanz, José F.
Format: Article
Published: Wiley 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32941/
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author Gemmell, Norman
Kneller, Richard
McGowan, Danny
Sanz, Ismael
Sanz-Sanz, José F.
author_facet Gemmell, Norman
Kneller, Richard
McGowan, Danny
Sanz, Ismael
Sanz-Sanz, José F.
author_sort Gemmell, Norman
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description This paper explores whether higher corporate tax rates reduce the speed with which small firms converge to the productivity frontier by lowering the after-tax returns to productivity-enhancing investments. Using data for 11 European countries we find evidence that their productivity catch-up is slower the higher are statutory corporate tax rates. In contrast, we find large firms are instead affected by effective marginal rates. Using the reduced form model of productivity convergence due to Griffith et al. (2009) our results are robust to a host of robustness checks and a natural experiment that exploits the 2001 German tax reforms.
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publishDate 2016
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spelling nottingham-329412020-05-04T18:00:58Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32941/ Corporate taxation and productivity catch-up: evidence from European firms Gemmell, Norman Kneller, Richard McGowan, Danny Sanz, Ismael Sanz-Sanz, José F. This paper explores whether higher corporate tax rates reduce the speed with which small firms converge to the productivity frontier by lowering the after-tax returns to productivity-enhancing investments. Using data for 11 European countries we find evidence that their productivity catch-up is slower the higher are statutory corporate tax rates. In contrast, we find large firms are instead affected by effective marginal rates. Using the reduced form model of productivity convergence due to Griffith et al. (2009) our results are robust to a host of robustness checks and a natural experiment that exploits the 2001 German tax reforms. Wiley 2016-07-17 Article PeerReviewed Gemmell, Norman, Kneller, Richard, McGowan, Danny, Sanz, Ismael and Sanz-Sanz, José F. (2016) Corporate taxation and productivity catch-up: evidence from European firms. Scandinavian Journal of Economics . ISSN 1467-9442 Productivity; taxation; convergence http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/sjoe.12212/abstract doi:10.1111/sjoe.12212 doi:10.1111/sjoe.12212
spellingShingle Productivity; taxation; convergence
Gemmell, Norman
Kneller, Richard
McGowan, Danny
Sanz, Ismael
Sanz-Sanz, José F.
Corporate taxation and productivity catch-up: evidence from European firms
title Corporate taxation and productivity catch-up: evidence from European firms
title_full Corporate taxation and productivity catch-up: evidence from European firms
title_fullStr Corporate taxation and productivity catch-up: evidence from European firms
title_full_unstemmed Corporate taxation and productivity catch-up: evidence from European firms
title_short Corporate taxation and productivity catch-up: evidence from European firms
title_sort corporate taxation and productivity catch-up: evidence from european firms
topic Productivity; taxation; convergence
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32941/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32941/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32941/