Does tax competition really promote growth?

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  • Marko Köthenbürger
  • Ben Lockwood
This paper considers the relationship between tax competition and growth in an endogenous growth model where there are stochastic shocks to productivity, and capital taxes fund a public good which may be for final consumption or an infrastructure input. Absent stochastic shocks, decentralized tax setting (two or more jurisdictions) maximizes the rate of growth, as the constant returns to scale present with endogenous growth implies "extreme" tax competition. Stochastic shocks imply that households face a portfolio choice problem, which dampens down tax competition and may raise taxes above the centralized level. Growth can be lower with decentralization. Our results also predict a negative relationship between output volatility and growth with decentralization.
Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Economic Dynamics and Control
Volume34
Issue number2
Pages (from-to)191-206
Number of pages16
ISSN0165-1889
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2010

ID: 12236597