In this thesis I address several neglected issues relating to the theoretical and applied analysis of human capital and the impact of taxation. I begin with the problem of measuring the effective tax rate on human capital accumulation. I develop a forward-looking measure of the effective tax rate that is grounded in human capital theory, allowing for features that differentiate human capital formation from physical capital formation. These features include concavity of the earnings-investment frontier and adjustments in capital utilization through leisure. I argue that the few attempts that have been made to measure the effective tax rate on skill formation are either limited by the fact that they inherit assumptions applicable to the theory of the firm or have dubious theoretical foundations (Chapter Two). The new measure is used to derive the effective tax rate on human capital in 25 OECD countries, including Australia (Chapter Three). While there are numerous general equilibrium models which integrate nominal rigidities of one form or another, little attention has been devoted to nominal rigidities arising from partial indexation of income tax thresholds. No doubt one of the reasons for this gap in the literature is the difficulty associated with introducing a fully specified progressive tax regime into an applied general equilibrium model. I show that this hurdle can be overcome through a zero-profit condition for general equilibrium on the labour market. The condition is integrated into an aggregative model of the economy consisting of two sectors (consumption and education) and two factors of production (skilled and unskilled labour). Since skill formation is endogenous, the model allows us to reopen research into the optimal level of skill formation and the role of government (Chapter Four). An applied general equilibrium version of the model is used to evaluate the impact of recent tax reform proposals on skill formation (Chapter Five). A concluding chapter draws together these lines of enquiry with suggestions for future research (Chapter Six).

In this thesis I address several neglected issues relating to the theoretical and applied analysis of human capital and the impact of taxation. I begin with the problem of measuring the effective tax rate on human capital accumulation. I develop a forward-looking measure of the effective tax rate that is grounded in human capital theory, allowing for features that differentiate human capital formation from physical capital formation. These features include concavity of the earnings-investment frontier and adjustments in capital utilization through leisure. I argue that the few attempts that have been made to measure the effective tax rate on skill formation are either limited by the fact that they inherit assumptions applicable to the theory of the firm or have dubious theoretical foundations (Chapter Two). The new measure is used to derive the effective tax rate on human capital in 25 OECD countries, including Australia (Chapter Three). While there are numerous general equilibrium models which integrate nominal rigidities of one form or another, little attention has been devoted to nominal rigidities arising from partial indexation of income tax thresholds. No doubt one of the reasons for this gap in the literature is the difficulty associated with introducing a fully specified progressive tax regime into an applied general equilibrium model. I show that this hurdle can be overcome through a zero-profit condition for general equilibrium on the labour market. The condition is integrated into an aggregative model of the economy consisting of two sectors (consumption and education) and two factors of production (skilled and unskilled labour). Since skill formation is endogenous, the model allows us to reopen research into the optimal level of skill formation and the role of government (Chapter Four). An applied general equilibrium version of the model is used to evaluate the impact of recent tax reform proposals on skill formation (Chapter Five). A concluding chapter draws together these lines of enquiry with suggestions for future research (Chapter Six).

本研究旨在探討影響公司有效稅率之相關因素，除了參考國外研究發現之因素，如企業規模、研究發展支出、固定資產淨額、舉債程度、獲利能力及產業別等，並考量我國租稅及商業環境之特色，如：證券及土地交易所得免稅之規定、集團企業因素之影響等，以對影響我國上市（櫃）公司有效稅率之因素做較完整而全面之分析。本研究之研究範圍自民國75年至86年，選擇在台灣證券交易所之股票上市公司，以及在櫃檯買賣中心之股票上櫃公司為研究樣本。 本研究經實證檢定後獲致以下結論： 1. 經由實證結果之驗證，可推論台灣上市（櫃）公司確實會透過證券、土地交易之安排來規避稅賦，藉以降低公司之有效稅率。 2. 集團之上市（櫃）公司，其有效稅率會比非集團之公司為低。並且，同一產業別中，集團之上市（櫃）公司，其有效稅率會比非集團化之公司為低。 3. 實證結果支持政治成本假說。亦即，當公司規模愈大，其政治能見度愈高，所受到的控制監督相對亦較大，其享用之社會資源相對亦較多，因此必須多付出一些政治成本，故有較高之有效稅率。 4. 公司融資舉債的稅盾利益效果相當顯著，故若考量了租稅成本後，公司應該選擇舉債融資而非股權融資，以達租稅最小化之目的。 5. 投資固定資產支出具有折舊及投資抵減的租稅優惠，但省稅效果並不顯著。在研究發展費用方面，實證結果並不如預期，可能係由於次級資料庫中的遺漏值過多，以致最後統計結果之扭曲。 / This study investigates the determinants of corporate effective tax rates (ETRs) in Taiwan, including firm size, R&D expenses, net fixed assets, and leverage. The data used in this study are from 1986-1997. Samples are available from the public traded companies registered in the Taiwan stock exchange and OTC. The conclusions of this study are as follows: 1. The results show that companies reduce their ETRs by engaging in securities and land transactions. 2. Conglomerates’ effective tax rates are lower than non-joint-venture companies. 3. The empirical result support the Political cost hypothesis. The larger the firm sizes are, the greater degrees they are monitored, so they bear greater political costs. 4. The leverage effects and tax dodges benefits are also significant, and if considering tax benefits, companies should prefer debt to stocks in order to minimise their tax expenses.

Le thème général exploré dans cette recherche doctorale est "la Concurrence et la Convergence Fiscales". Examiner les concepts de concurrence et convergence fiscales d'une manière intégrée constitue un objectif important en soi. Cela permet, jusqu'à un certain point, d'apporter une vision innovatrice au problème étudié. Jusqu'ici, la littérature sur la concurrence fiscale ne suggère pas que les taux d'imposition convergent dans l'une ou l'autre direction. Les résultats principaux d'un modèle de concurrence fiscale classique avec des pays symétriques sont que, 1- la mobilité du capital induit un taux d'imposition trop bas par rapport à l'optimum social ; 2- il existe une corrélation négative entre la mobilité du capital et le taux d'imposition sur le capital ; 3- une harmonisation vers le haut des taux d'imposition des capitaux peut produire une amélioration au sens de Pareto. Bien que ces trois points représentent une vision simplificatrice et réductrice d'une longue et riche littérature, ils sont globalement corrects. Un deuxième objectif du travail est de confronter la théorie à la réalité empirique. Cette thèse est composée de "chapitres". Les chapitres 2 à 5 sont constitués, chacun d'un article dans son intégralité. Ceci signifie que le lecteur va retrouver dans chaque chapitre un papier avec introduction, développement et conclusions, et en cas de publication de l'article, une copie de celui-ci dans son format de présentation original. Le chapitre 6 contient les conclusions finales. Bien que chacune des parties constitue un composant isolé, l'enchainement garde un développement logique. Le chapitre 2 définit l'impôt sur lequel on souhaite travailler et présente la littérature sur les taux d'imposition effective avec quelques extensions. Une fois défini l'impôt sur le capital comme l'instrument sur lequel on centre notre attention, le chapitre 3 développe un modèle de concurrence fiscale. Le chapitre 4 observe la concurrence fiscale entre pays et fait un lien avec les mesures de convergence présentées dans le chapitre suivant. D'une manière similaire, le chapitre 5 tente d'observer la convergence fiscale entre pays d'une façon empirique.

This dissertation contains two separate essays on the implications of the complex financial reporting rules of stock option compensation outlined under ASC 718. The first essay examines the effect of the tax benefit from employees' exercise of stock options on the cash effective tax rate. While not explicitly stated, many tax avoidance studies implicitly want to investigate tax avoidance that is the result of firms' intentional choices. Although stock option exercise reduces firms' tax burden, the firm does not control the timing of option exercise and the accompanying tax benefit. When the realized tax benefit deviates from the firm's expected cost, stock option exercise results in unanticipated changes in the cash taxes paid. The cash effective tax rate (CASHETR), a common measure of tax avoidance, reflects both the anticipated and unanticipated cash tax savings from employees' exercise of stock options. CASHETR's inclusion of unanticipated cash tax savings mismeasures intentional tax avoidance. Using both parametric and non-parametric analysis I show that the unanticipated tax benefit from employees' stock option exercise can cause firms to be identified as more aggressive tax avoiders. I also show that, among other differences, firms with greater unanticipated tax benefits from employees' exercise of stock options are more profitable, are less levered, have more extensive R&D, and have larger market-to-book ratios. Because these firm characteristics are often used as controls in studies of tax avoidance, the relationship between them and CASHETR's mismeasurement of intentional tax avoidance creates an endogeneity problem for researchers and could lead to incorrect inferences. I use a research simulation to inform researchers of an implication of this endogeneity concern when CASHETR is used to measure firms' intentional tax avoidance. I construct a hypothetical firm characteristic that is correlated to varying degrees with stock growth. This hypothetical firm characteristic represents a number of firm operating characteristics that could be variables of interest in studies of tax avoidance. Using a common model of tax avoidance, I test the null hypothesis that this hypothetical firm characteristic is not a determinant of tax avoidance. I show CASHETR's inclusion of the unanticipated tax benefits from employees' exercise of stock options leads to inflated rejection rates of the null hypothesis and can change inferences about determinants of intentional tax avoidance. Tax avoidance researchers can avoid the problems caused by the unanticipated tax benefit from stock options in two ways. First, they can use the effective tax rate for financial reporting purposes (GAAPETR). Because the financial reporting rules prohibit firms from including the unanticipated tax benefit from stock options in the calculation of the firm's tax expense, the unanticipated tax benefit from stock options does not affect GAAPETR. Second, researchers can use the excess tax benefit from the exercise of stock options disclosed by firms to adjust CASHETR to remove these unanticipated cash tax savings (CASHETRWITHOUT). The second essay in this dissertation examines the difference between firms' recognized and realized costs from stock option compensation. Under ASC 718 a firm recognizes the estimated value of stock options at their grant date as an expense for financial reporting purposes. This estimate often differs from the realized cost of the stock options, which consists of the cash proceeds forgone because the stock is issued to an option holder at a below-market exercise price. When ASC 718 was implemented, critics contended that these reporting rules allowed firms to avoid recognizing the full amount of wealth transferred from shareholders to employees. Consistent with this concern, I find that the realized cost of stock options exceeds the recognized cost of options for the median firm in my sample by $0.99 million, or 1.46 percent of pretax book income, in each year of my sample period. This translates into a wealth transfer from shareholders to employees in each year of my sample period of three cents per share in excess of recognized costs for the median firm. I also find that the realized cost from stock option compensation exceeds the recognized cost by $7.8 million, or 4.96 percent of pretax book income, in each year of my sample period for twenty-five percent of firms. The shareholders of these firms are transferring to employees 11.58 cents per share in excess of the recognized cost of stock options in each year of the sample period. Overall, these results suggest that firms using stock option compensation generally avoid recognizing the full realized cost of stock options.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Economics / Steven P. Cassou / Although geographic proximity is not enough to imply similar social, political and economic outcomes, the Portuguese and Spanish development experiences have been quite alike since the 15th century and in particular during the post-WWII period. Since 1950, both countries went through significant market transformations, ranging from democratization to market liberalization and adhesion to the European Union. However, even today, these economies, and in particular Portugal, do not rival those of the more developed European countries. This dissertation contributes to the growing body of literature on the Iberian economies by presenting three essays that employ modern macroeconomics tools to further our understanding about the growth and development experiences of these countries. The first essay provides a detailed growth accounting exercise and reconciles the results with the political and socioeconomic context of the 1950-2004 period. Since Total Factor Productivity is identified as the main engine of growth, the second essay explores a quantitative measure for the level of barriers that each country faced in the process of adopting new technologies. The numerical experiments suggest that Spain had consistently lower barriers than Portugal and that the gap has been increasing since the establishment of the European Single Market. The last essay investigates the role of fiscal policy and, specifically, if distortionary taxes on capital and labor income may have been a key factor behind the observed volatility for factor inputs. The simulation results derived from several potential scenarios support this conjuncture. Additionally, the last essay contributes by offering a time series for the levels of effective tax rates on labor and capital income in the Iberian economies over the 1975-2004 period.

本研究以民國86年至民國93年上市公司財務報表資料探討我國企業赴中國大陸投資相關因素對有效稅率的影響。經本研究實證結果發現，有赴中國大陸投資的上市公司其有效稅率低於未赴中國大陸投資者；上市公司透過間接方式投資大陸地區之比重愈高者以及大陸地區投資獲利愈高者，由於有較多租稅規劃的空間，其有效稅率愈低。整體而言，在研究期間中，我國上市公司之平均有效稅率明顯低於營利事業所得稅名目最高邊際稅率；公司規模對有效稅率有負向影響，符合政治權力假說；本研究以長期負債、固定資產、存貨、研究發展費用做為投資理財決策的代理變數，皆與有效稅率呈現負相關，因此投資理財決策具有稅盾效果，可以降低公司稅負；另外，上市公司的獲利能力愈佳，有效稅率也愈高；證券以及土地交易所得等免稅所得較多的上市公司，有效稅率較低。上述分析顯示，上市公司赴中國大陸投資因素對於其租稅負擔有顯著影響，值得政府有關單位做為研擬相關法規的參考。 / This study uses 1997-2004 financial statement data to explore the relationships between investment in Mainland China and the effective tax rates (ETRs) of listed companies in Taiwan. The empirical results show that investment in Mainland China of the listed companies has a negative and significant impact on the ETRs. This study finds that ETRs is negatively related with the scale of indirect investment and the level of profit of subsidiaries in Mainland China, perhaps due to a higher flexibility and feasibility of tax planning. Our results also reveal that average ETRs of listed companies are substantially lower than the statutory tax rate of the Income Tax Act of R.O.C. Small firms are more likely to have greater ETRs, supporting the political power hypothesis. Moreover, because of the tax shield effects, long-term debts, fixed assets, inventories, and R&D expenses, all as proxies for the financial decisions, have negative and significant impacts on the ETRs of listed companies. Finally, ceteris paribus, profitable companies tend to have higher ETRs, and tax-exempt capital gains from stock and land transactions also reduce the ETRs of listed companies. These findings indicate that investment in Mainland China by listed companies plays an important role in their tax burdens, and this fact should be taken into account by the government in devising future tax reforms.

The thesis entitled Development of the differences between the implicit and the nominal corporate tax rate in the Czech Republic deals with the amount of the implicit and nominal corporate tax rate, particularly the issue of the difference between the amounts of these rates. Examination of the rates follows the description of the characteristics of corporate income tax, the analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of this tax and its share of the total taxation . Furthermore, the thesis analyzed the method of calculating the effective tax rates and implicit tax rates on capital and corporate income. For comparison the thesis includes the analysis of the evolution of nominal and implicit tax rates on corporate income in the European Union and in the Czech Republic . For the final analysis, it is essential that the thesis presented as individual changes in the law on income tax since its introduction into the Czech legal system since 1993 to the present. Only with knowledge of legislative changes, it is possible to determine the relationship between nominal and implicit tax rate on corporate income, which deals with the thesis in the final analysis.

The diploma thesis on topic The impact of the economic crisis on the difference between the effective and statutory tax rate in the Czech Republic deals with the issue above the nominal and effective tax rates on corporate income during the economic crisis, specifically between years 2006 and 2015. The thesis deals with the causes of these differences between rates during each year of the crisis, and there is also comparison among the Czech Republic and European Union countries. First the work mentioned problems related to the last economic crisis, not only globally but also in terms of the Czech Republic. The following is a basic characteristic of the tax on corporate income, the share of total taxes over the years and the most important changes in the Law on Income Tax in the Czech Republic in individual years. In conclusion there is displayed the development of implicit and statutory tax rates and an analysis of the differences between these two rates.

Syfte: Företags kassaflöden och vinster samt staters inkomster påverkas av hur mycket skatt som betalas av företag. Resultat i tidigare forskning om företagsstorlekens betydelse för effektiva skattesatser är motstridiga. Utelämnande av andra variabler som i vissa studier har visats ha signifikanta effekter på effektiva skattesatser kan vara en anledning till denna motstridighet. Sådan forskning har inte genomförts i Sverige enligt författarnas kännedom. Därför undersöks i denna studie effekterna av variabler som mäter storlek, skuldsättning, kapitalintensitet, forsknings- och utvecklingsintensitet samt lönsamhet på effektiva skattesatser hos företag med svensk företagsledning eller koncernledning. Syftet med detta är att ge en bild av vilka faktorer som kan förklara variationer mellan dessa företags skattebörda. Metod: Fem hypoteser om samband mellan variabler deduceras utifrån teorier och tidigare forskning. 3 593 kvantitativa observationer från 702 noterade företag och 6 år samlas in från databasen Retriever Business. Den longitudinella datan används i en regressionsanalys som testar de fem hypoteserna. Resultat: Denna studie bidrar med empiriskt bevis för ett positivt och signifikant samband mellan företagsstorlek och effektiva skattesatser. Däremot visas inte effekterna av skuldsättning, kapitalintensitet, FoU-intensitet och lönsamhet på effektiva skattesatser vara signifikanta. Slutsatser: Den slutsats som dras är att företagsstorlek är en indikation på storleken på effektiva skattesatser för företag med svensk företagsledning eller koncernledning. Teorin om politiska kostnader kan användas för att förklara sambandets riktning. / Aim: Cash flows and profits in firms as well as government revenue are affected by how much is paid in corporate taxes. Results in prior research concerning the effect of firm size on effective tax rates are inconsistent. Omitting other variables that have in some studies been proven to have significant effects on effective tax rates can be one cause of this inconsistency. Such research has not been conducted in Sweden to the extent of the authors’ knowledge. Therefore, this study examines the effects of variables that measure size, leverage, capital intensity, research and development intensity, and profitability on effective tax rates for firms with Swedish management or group management. The aim of this is describing which factors that can explain variations between these firms’ tax burdens. Method: Five hypotheses regarding associations between variables are deduced from theories and prior research. 3 593 quantitative observations from 702 publicly listed firms and 6 years are collected from the database Retriever Business. The longitudinal data is used in a regression analysis that tests the five hypotheses. Results: This study provides empirical evidence for a positive and significant association between firm size and effective tax rates. However, the effects of leverage, capital intensity, R&D intensity, and profitability on effective tax rates are not shown to be significant. Conclusions: It is concluded that firm size is an indicator of the size of effective tax rates for firms with Swedish management or group management. The political cost theory can be used in explaining the direction of the association.