Effective tax rates, endogenous mark-ups and heterogeneous firms

Irlacher, Michael und Unger, Florian (24. Mai 2018): Effective tax rates, endogenous mark-ups and heterogeneous firms. Münchener Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Beiträge (VWL) 2018-6

Abstract

We provide a new explanation why effective tax rates are smaller for larger firms even in the absence of common channels like profit shifting and lobbying. This result emerges in a heterogeneous firms model with endogenous mark-ups. Our framework features imperfect tax pass-through into prices and partial deductibility of production costs. Corporate taxes reduce mark-ups and hence pre-tax profits, especially for high cost firms. As production costs are only partially deductible, high cost producers are affected most by taxes. We further show that shocks which affect mark-ups through competition, like globalization, reinforce the heterogeneity in effective tax rates across firms.

• Dokumententyp: Paper
• Keywords: Heterogeneous firms; Corporate taxation; Effective tax rate; Linear demand; Endogenous mark-ups
• Fakultät: Volkswirtschaft > Munich Discussion Papers in Economics
• Themengebiete: 300 Sozialwissenschaften > 330 Wirtschaft
• JEL Classification: H25, F12, L11
• Sprache: Englisch

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