The Effects of Anti-Tax Avoidance Policy on Multinational Firm Behavior

Abstract

This thesis investigates questions on the behavior of multinational corporations in the context of international taxation with a particular focus on the unintended consequences of anti-tax avoidance policy. It consists of four self-contained chapters that analyze the impact of these policies on the distribution of profits within firm groups, their investment decisions, and the way they structure their internal capital markets. All chapters show that real economic activity adapts to anti-tax avoidance policies and other tax incen-tives. The associated costs of these regulations can be strongly heterogeneous and difficult to estimate. Taken together, the findings of this dissertation highlight that tax policy can have unintended and sometimes unexpected effects on firm behavior that can come at a significant cost to the regulating country.