Assessing the Effects of Local Taxation using Microgeographic Data

Abstract

We study the impact of local taxation on the location and growth of firms. Our empirical methodology pairs establishments across jurisdictional boundaries to estimate the impact of taxation. Our approach improves on existing work as it corrects for unobserved establishment heterogeneity, for unobserved time-varying site-specific effects and for the endogeneity of local taxation. Applied to data for English manufacturing establishments, we find that local taxation has a negative impact on employment growth but no effect on entry. © 2011 The Author(s). The Economic Journal © 2011 Royal Economic Society.