Corporate tax enforcement and business activity

We examine the consequences of corporate tax enforcement for business activity. Using two different empirical approaches—a regional design and a firm-level design—we document that corporate tax enforcement is negatively associated with business activity, as measured by establishments and employment....

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Gallemore, J. (John)|||/items/ddc5fe08-f49a-44f1-8ee7-642c13fc94dc, Jacob, M. (Martin)|||/items/b4c80971-c877-4230-904c-54573540e482
Format: article
Publication Date:2025
Country:España
Institution:Universidad de Navarra
Repository:Dadun. Depósito Académico Digital de la Universidad de Navarra
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:dadun.unav.edu:10171/116556
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10171/116556
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Corporate tax enforcement
Business activity
Local economies
Employment
Compliance costs
Description
Summary:We examine the consequences of corporate tax enforcement for business activity. Using two different empirical approaches—a regional design and a firm-level design—we document that corporate tax enforcement is negatively associated with business activity, as measured by establishments and employment. This association is economically significant and is robust to tests that mitigate concerns regarding endogeneity and measurement. Furthermore, we find that the negative association between tax enforcement and business activity varies substantially in the cross-section. Specifically, we find that it is weaker for regions and firms with greater access to external financing sources and is stronger for regions and firms where compliance costs are likely higher and for which the ex ante costs of tax enforcement are greater. Our findings suggest that the effects of tax enforcement on business activity are economically important and heterogeneous, which should be of interest to academics and policymakers.