International Repercussions of Direct Taxes

Abstract

This paper analyzes the impact of tax competition between two countries of un- equal per-capita capital endowments on tax rates and efficiency when distorting wage, residence-based and source-based capital taxes (o any combination of two instruments) are available for governments. The national welfare costs and benefits of tax rate varia- tions are shown to be ambiguous in the asymmetric Nash equilibrium due to the existence of tax base and terms of trade effects. Moreover,numerical simulation results indicate that non-cooperative equilibria in Nash strategies are inefficient from an international perspective, even if residence-based capital taxes are in the set of tax instruments avail- able to fiscal authorities.