TY  - JOUR
AU  - Backus,David
AU  - Henriksen,Espen
AU  - Storesletten,Kjetil
TI  - Taxes and the Global Allocation of Capital
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 13624
PY  - 2007
Y2  - November 2007
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13624
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13624.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
David Backus
Stern School of Business
NYU
44 West 4th Street
New York, NY 10012-1126
Tel: 212/998-0873
Fax: 212/995-4221
E-Mail: dbackus@stern.nyu.edu

Espen Henriksen
University of California, Santa Barbara
2127 North Hall
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
E-Mail: espen@econ.ucsb.edu

Kjetil Storesletten
Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
Research Department
90 Hennepin Ave.
Minneapolis, MN 55401
Tel: +47 22844009
E-Mail: kjetil.storesletten@econ.uio.no
AB  - Despite enormous growth in international capital flows, capital-output ratios continue to exhibit substantial heterogeneity across countries. We explore the possibility that taxes, particularly corporate taxes, are a significant source of this heterogeneity. The evidence is mixed. Tax rates computed from tax revenue are inversely correlated with capital-output ratios, as we might expect. However, effective tax rates constructed from official tax rates show little relation to capital -- or to revenue-based tax measures. The stark difference between these two tax measures remains an open issue.
ER  -