Tax incidence, majority voting and capital market integration

We re-examine, from a political economy perspective, the standard view that higher capital mobility results in lower capital taxes - a view, in fact, that is not confirmed by the available empirical evidence. We show that when a small economy is opened to capital mobility, the change of incidence of a tax on capital-from capital owners to owners of the immobile factor-may interact in such a way with political decision-making so as to cause a rise in the equilibrium tax. This can happen whether or not the immobile factor (labour) can be taxed, and whether or not savings can be subsided under capital mobility. (c) 2005 Published by Elsevier B.V