Essays on corporate taxation and the firm

grantor: University of TorontoThree essays treat various issues in understanding and evaluating firm behaviour in response to taxation. Essay I analyzes capital taxation in a dominant firm model. Essay II analyzes corporate tax refunds in an oligopolistic supergame model. Essay III analyzes the impact of tax asymmetries on investment decisions in a neoclassical model. Essay I proposes a two-stage dominant firm model which allows for cost-reducing investment by the dominant firm prior to quantity competition. Market structure is endogenous, and accommodated and impeded entry equilibria with and without underinvestment are characterized. Tax effects are generally consistent with economic theory but special cases arise: for example, (i) small tax changes alter market structure through entry or exit; (ii) some tax changes have no impacts on market variables; and (iii) a subsidy to non-producing fringe is welfare-improving. The analysis emphasizes the importance of market discontinuities. Essay II proposes a particular collusive equilibrium in a repeated oligopoly model with homogeneous quantity-setting firms. The industry sustains tacit collusion by using credible and severe punishments of deviations. The paper focuses on the impact of changing the refundability of tax losses. The analysis of the most collusive equilibrium with losses indicates that a tax policy which increases refundability reduces industry output, increases market price, and therefore strengthens tacit collusion. In addition, the policy increases government revenue and reduces social welfare. Essay III develops theoretical expressions for the user cost of capital in the presence of tax asymmetries. An empirical model is developed to estimate the probability of a given tax status on the basis of firm characteristics. A structural switching regression model of the firm's demand for capital goods is developed next. This model uses estimated probabilities as inputs and is utilized to investigate the potential endogeneity of the cost of capital using a balanced panel of Canadian companies. Results suggest that tax status affects the firms' capital acquisition behaviour.Ph.D