TY  - JOUR
AU  - Kawano, Laura
AU  - Slemrod, Joel
TI  - The Effect of Tax Rates and Tax Bases on Corporate Tax Revenues: Estimates with New Measures of the Corporate Tax Base 
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 18440
PY  - 2012
Y2  - October 2012
DO  - 10.3386/w18440
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w18440
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w18440.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Laura Kawano
University of Michigan
E-Mail: laurakawano@gmail.com

Joel Slemrod
University of Michigan
701 Tappan Street
Room R5396
Ann Arbor, MI  48109-1234
Tel: 734/936-3914
Fax: 734-615-4323
E-Mail: jslemrod@umich.edu
M1  - published as Laura Kawano, Joel Slemrod. "The Effect of Tax Rates and Tax Bases on Corporate Tax Revenues: Estimates with New Measures of the Corporate Tax Base," in Michael Devereux and Roger Gordon, organizers, "Business Taxation (Trans-Atlantic Public Economics Seminar)" American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Volume 6, no. 2 (2014)

M3  - presented at "Trans-Atlantic Public Economics Seminar", June 20-22, 2012
AB  - Several recent analyses have suggested that the revenue-maximizing corporate tax rate resides in the low-30's. We challenge this result by re-examining this relationship using a new compilation of changes in corporate tax base definitions for OECD countries between 1980 and 2004. By considering tax base changes in addition to tax rate changes, we can address the estimation bias that applies to tax rates absent their consideration. We find that the relationship between corporate tax rates and corporate tax revenues is tenuous. The large behavioral response to corporate tax rates implied in the literature does not obtain when accounting for persistent differences in tax policy and business environments across countries.
ER  -