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American Economic Review Vol. 106 No. 10 2016

Taxation and the International Mobility of Inventors

Ufuk Akcigit1; Salomé Baslandze2; Stefanie Stantcheva3

1 University of Chicago, 1126 East 59th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, and NBER (e-mail: ) · 2 Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance, EIEF, Via Sallustiana, 62, 00187 Rome, Italy (e-mail: ) · 3 Harvard Society of Fellows, Department of Economics, Littauer Center 232, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, and NBER (e-mail: )

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Abstract

We study the effect of top tax rates on “superstar” inventors' international mobility since 1977, using panel data on inventors from the US and European Patent Offices. We exploit the differential impact of changes in top tax rates on inventors of different qualities. Superstar inventors' location choices are significantly affected by top tax rates. In our preferred specification, the elasticity to the net-of-tax rate of the number of domestic superstar inventors is around 0.03, while that of foreign superstar inventors is around 1. These elasticities are larger for inventors in multinational companies. An inventor is less sensitive to taxes in a country if his company performs a higher share of its research there.

DOI
10.1257/aer.20150237
Volume
106
Issue
10
Pages
2930-2981
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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