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Working Paper
Taxation and the Global Allocation of Intangibles
We study how international tax regimes and intellectual property (IP) rights shape the global allocation of intangible assets. Using a new dataset of cross-border patent transactions, we find that tax differentials are a key determinant of intra-firm transfers within multinational companies. Stronger IP rights play a bigger role in inter-firm transactions. To interpret these patterns, we develop a model in which firms choose to license, sell, or profit-shift patents depending on tax wedges and differences in IP protection. The theory rationalizes these findings and highlights how differences ...
Working Paper
Taxation and the Global Allocation of Intangibles
We study how international tax regimes affect the allocation of intangible assets using a new dataset on global patent transfers and a structural model of shifting decisions. Empirically, patent transfers respond strongly to statutory tax differentials during 2007–2012 but much less after major reforms. In the model, heterogeneous patents choose between licensing and shifting based on tax wedges and setup costs. Calibrated to observed shifting rates, the model matches the concentration of royalty income in low-tax jurisdictions. Counterfactuals show that harmonizing tax rates greatly ...
Journal Article
Profit Shifting Through Intellectual Property
Patent data can give us insights on profit shifting due to multinationals moving intellectual property to tax havens.