Which Countries Become Tax Havens?
Which Countries Become Tax Havens?
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DOI：
10.2139/ssrn.952721
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发表时间：
2006-12
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Dhammika Dharmapala;James R. Hines Jr.
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文献类型：
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作者：
Dhammika Dharmapala;James R. Hines Jr.
本文分析了影响国家是否成为避税天堂的因素。大约 15% 的国家是避税天堂；正如人们广泛观察到的那样，这些国家往往面积小而富裕。本文记录了另一个强有力的经验规律：治理较好的国家比其他国家更有可能成为避税天堂。在控制其他相关因素的情况下，治理质量与成为避税天堂的可能性具有统计上显着且数量上显着的关联。对于一个人口不足100万的典型国家来说，随着治理质量从巴西水平提高到葡萄牙水平，成为避税天堂的可能性从26%上升到61%。来自美国公司的证据表明，与其他地方的低税率相比，低税率对治理良好的国家的外国投资具有更强大的吸引力。这可以解释为什么治理不善的国家通常不会试图成为避税天堂，并表明明智的税收政策选择的范围受到治理质量的限制。
This paper analyzes the factors influencing whether countries become tax havens. Roughly 15% of countries are tax havens; as has been widely observed, these countries tend to be small and affluent. This paper documents another robust empirical regularity: better-governed countries are much more likely than others to become tax havens. Controlling for other relevant factors, governance quality has a statistically significant and quantitatively large association with the probability of being a tax haven. For a typical country with a population under one million, the likelihood of a becoming a tax haven rises from 26% to 61% as governance quality improves from the level of Brazil to that of Portugal. Evidence from US firms suggests that low tax rates offer much more powerful inducements to foreign investment in well-governed countries than do low tax rates elsewhere. This may explain why poorly-governed countries do not generally attempt to become tax havens, and suggests that the range of sensible tax policy options is constrained by the quality of governance.