The effect of globalization on capital taxation: What have we learned after 20 years of empirical studies?

Abstract

This paper applies meta-regression analysis to the empirical literature that examines the impact of international market integration on capital taxation. The main objective is to explore whether particular data, model specification and estimation procedures exert systematic impact on the reported findings. Our results provide empirical evidence that differences across studies can be attributed to differences in the measurement of globalization. Moreover, in contrast to the conventional wisdom, study characteristics related to the measurement of the tax burden on capital appear to have an insignificant effect on the above mentioned relationship. Finally the meta-analysis fails to confirm a negative effect of globalization on the taxation of capital.