Is the corporation tax a barrier to productivity growth?

Abstract

Evidence shows that size matters in terms of productivity. Within this literature, this paper analyses whether corporation tax penalises the productivity growth of smaller enterprises (SEs) (< 20 workers). For this purpose, we use a sample of Spanish manufacturing companies for the period 1996 to 2009. Results show that corporation tax has a negative effect upon productivity growth in companies with the greatest profitability, whether large or small. However, in relative terms, this barrier is greater for SEs. The results therefore show that corporation tax prevents the SMEs in Spain from improving their low productivity.