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Conditional tax competition in American states

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 July 2017

Vincent Arel-Bundock  and
Srinivas Parinandi
Vincent Arel-Bundock
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Université de Montréal, Canada E-mail: Vincent.arel-bundock@umontreal.ca
Srinivas Parinandi
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Colorado at Boulder, USA E-mail: Srinivas.parinandi@colorado.edu
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Abstract

Cross-border commercial activity raises issues in federations where multiple jurisdictions can claim the right to tax the same income. In the United States, this coordination problem is resolved by splitting the tax base according to the geographic distribution of firms’ sales, capital and labour. The weight of each factor is determined on a state-by-state basis, which opens room for competitive legislative behaviour. In this complex issue area, however, policymakers must invest lot of resources to monitor competitors, evaluate policy alternatives and shepherd tax reform through the legislative process. This implies that highly professional legislatures should be more responsive to the policies of nearby states. We consider data on most American states over the period from 1986 to 2013 and find strong evidence of conditional spatial dependence. Our findings suggest that policy diffusion may often be moderated by institutional and political factors.

Keywords

federalismpolicy diffusionspatial dependencestate politicstax policy
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Public Policy , Volume 38 , Issue 2 , June 2018 , pp. 191 - 220
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press, 2017 

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