TY - JOUR AU - Slemrod,Joel TI - A North-South Model of Taxation and Capital Flow JF - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series VL - No. 3238 PY - 1990 Y2 - January 1990 UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w3238 L1 - http://www.nber.org/papers/w3238.pdf N1 - Author contact info: Joel Slemrod University of Michigan Business School 701 Tappan Street Room R5396 Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1234 Tel: 734/936-3914 Fax: 734-615-4323 E-Mail: jslemrod@umich.edu AB - This paper presents a simple two-country model of the role of taxation in capital flows between developed countries ("The North") and developing countries ("The South"). The Southern country is assumed to be unable to enforce a tax on its residents' foreign-source income, and the Northern country chooses not to impose a withholding tax on portfolio income earned in its country.

The world equilibrium in the model is characterized by excessive (by the standard of global efficiency and Southern welfare) flows of capital across borders, and insufficient investment located in the South. National income of the South could, under certain conditions, be improved if the North would impose a withholding tax on portfolio income that leaves the country, even though the South sacrifices tax revenue to the North. A Southern tax on foreign-source income may dominate this, depending on the resource cost of enforcing such a tax. ER -