This paper develops a theoretical model of multinational firms with an internal capital
market. Main reasons for the emergence of such a market are tax avoidance through
debt shifting and the existence of institutional weaknesses and financial frictions across host countries. The model serves to derive hypotheses regarding the role of local versus foreign characteristics such as profit tax rates, lack of institutional quality, financial underdevelopment, and productivity for internal debt at the level of a given foreign affiliate. The paper assesses hypotheses in a panel data-set covering the universe of German multinational firms and their internal borrowing. Numerous novel insights are gained. For instance, the tax-sensitivity found in this paper is many times higher than previous research suggests. This accrues mainly to three things: the consideration of the boundedness of the internal debt ratio as a dependent variable in comparison to its treatment as an unbounded variable in most of the previous work; the coverage of all (small and large) multinationals here rather than a focus on large units in previous work; and the inclusion of endogenous characteristics in other countries multinationals are invested in (due to endogenous weights), while previous work did not consider such effects at all or assumed them to be exogenous. Moreover, local and foreign (at other locations of a given affiliate) market conditions matter more or less symmetrically and in the opposite direction. There is a nonlinear trade-off between institutional quality or financial development on the one hand and higher profit tax rates on the other hand, and the strength of this trade-off depends on the characteristics of one location relative to the other ones a multinational firm has affiliates (or the headquarters) in.
Das Schweizer Bankgeheimnis und die damit verbundenen Möglichkeiten zur Steuerhinterziehung haben in anderen Staaten zu erheblichen Verlusten bei den Haushaltseinnahmen und zu weitergehenden Wohlfahrtseinbussen geführt. Die Europäische Kommission ist bemüht, die Problematik nachhaltig im Sinne eines automatischen Informationsaustauschs zu lösen. Das paraphierte bilaterale Steuerabkommen Deutschlands mit der Schweiz unterläuft diese Anstrengungen und zementiert vor allem die durch ein Abwehrdispositiv gegen Steuerhinterziehung begründete ungleiche Behandlung von Arbeits- und Kapitaleinkommen im deutschen Steuersystem.
When labor incomes approach subsistence levels, the labor supply curve slopes outward, because the fight for survival mandates households to look for longer work hours in response to falling wage rates. We explore conditions under which near-subsistence scenarios may imply wage traps, labor market failures that can be the cause of undernourishment, illiteracy, and child labor. After stating general conditions under which wage traps occur, we look at specific production functions typically employed in quantitative analyses of growth and development. We find that standard Cobb-Douglas production functions do not permit wage traps, whereas CES functions do. Beyond that it turns out that when subsistence requirements increase with work hours, and when work effort rises with the wage rate, up to the efficiency-wage threshold, wage traps become more likely. Policy measures such as bans on child labor, implementation of minimum wage laws, or the establishment of labor unions may quite effectively improve conditions in wage-trapped labor markets
The recent crisis has revealed that bank and sovereign risks are inherently intertwined. This paper develops a model of the bank-sovereign nexus to identify the main spillovers and to study the implications of guarantees and capital regulation. We show how banks’ asset risk may trigger a sovereign default through taxation and deposit insurance. The latter can be contagious because of its cost or stabilizing by avoiding liquidation losses. Since sovereign risks receive preferential regulatory treatment, banks purchase government bonds. This creates the opportunity for adverse feedback loops such that a sovereign default is the very reason for bank failure.
Die Debatte über Offshore-Leaks und die sehr geringen Steuerzahlungen grosser multinationaler Konzerne haben das öffentliche Interesse auf das Problem "Steueroasen" gelenkt. Wenn Konzerne Steuersatzunterschiede zwischen verschiedenen Ländern ausnutzen, kann Steuergestaltung durchaus legal sein. Werden aber steuerpflichtige Einkommen von Privatpersonen nicht deklariert, ist das illegal. Massnahmen dagegen können neben der Aufdeckung von Straftaten an verschiedenen Stellen ansetzen: bei den Steuersätzen, der Regulierungsintensität, der Bemessungsgrundlage und den Informationspflichten. Werden die bestehenden Steueroasen ausgetrocknet, kann dies allerdings dazu führen, dass sich in grossen Staaten neue Steueroasen herausbilden.
