Taxes and Multinational Enterprises in the EU

Published: July 4, 2005, 11 a.m.

b'This work analyses how taxes determine the activities of multinational enterprises within the EU. Using disaggregated data, it is shown empirically, that different types of foreign direct investment react in different ways to alternative measures of the tax burden. It is shown theoretically, that this result is consistent with tax minimising income shifting activities. Moreover, in a setting of asymmetric capital tax competition, it is shown that income shifting alters the choice of optimal tax rates and that it will not inevitably increase competitive pressure on equilibrium tax rates.'