Multinational Taxation and R&D Investments

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis study examines the effects of taxation on the incentives of multinational firms to develop and use intellectual property. We model optimal investment and production decisions by firms that engage in a patent race by making R&D investments. We investigate how taxes affect the level and efficiency of R&D investments, and how these effects depend on whether the winner of the patent race uses it by either producing in the country in which the patent was developed (the domestic country) or in a foreign country. A higher domestic tax rate decreases investment in R&D if production occurs in the domestic country, but increases investment in R&D if production occurs in the foreign country. The present value of domestic tax revenues is strictly positive if production occurs in the domestic country, but is weakly negative if production occurs in the foreign country.