Abstract:

In the present study, we investigate the determinants of the effective corporate tax rate of some of the European Union (EU) member countries and other non-EU members. Only a few studies have analyzed the EU economies, unlike the case of the USA. In this study, we extend the analysis taking also into consideration some non-EU countries which appear strong economic cooperation with EU countries over time. The present study aims to analyze the period after the outbreak of the crisis in the Eurozone up today. More specifically, the period 2004-2016 is assessed. The empirical estimations are based on two-step generalized method of moments (GMM) transformed in first-differences in order to hand cross-section fixed effects. It seems that the effective corporate income tax rate is variously affected by firm-specific determining factors. More specifically, our empirical results indicate that the effective corporate income tax rate is negatively related to the firm size, capital intensity and return on assets. However, there is no statistically significant influence of financial leverage, inventory intensity, R&D intensity, participation of foreign investors to the equity ownership, participation of government to equity ownership, to the effective corporate income tax rate. Alternative estimation measures, as a robustness check, point out that the empirical findings are generally in agreement with the initial results.

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