Understanding the global effect of corporate tax reforms

Despite the wide-spread cross-border operations of firms, the lack of appropriate data has so far precluded a knowledge-based understanding of the international repercussions of corporate tax policies. TAXGLOBAL provides novel insights into the cross-border effect of firm taxation on economic activity. Given the recent tax reform in the United States and a surge of corporate tax reforms to be expected in Europe in the near future (e.g. France, the United Kingdom), such insights are now needed more than ever. It is essential to fully understand and quantify the cross-border impact of corporate tax policy in order to enhance job creation, sustainable investment and productivity growth in a globalized economy. TAXGLOBAL will provide a new understanding of the issue by compiling detailed high-quality data from Norway and analysing it in a quasi-experimental research design. In particular, I will (i) merge several administrative data sets on the domestic and foreign operations of companies which are obtained directly from the administrative and statistical authorities to which they report. This new and unique database will provide an unprecedented opportunity to study in detail the cross-border links on the level of the individual firm. I will (ii) compile a comprehensive and complementary database of all corporate tax reforms in a broad selection of countries to which firms are exposed via foreign affiliates. The information will then (iii) be combined and analysed using state-of-the-art regression models. This integral study of cross-border tax effects using administrative data for multinational firms will advance the research field with new insights into the global effect of tax policy on real business activity, as well as providing policy makers with a novel understanding of the implications of their decisions in integrated economies such as the EU.