Spillover from the Haven: Cross-border Externalities of Patent Box Regimes within Multinational Firms

We analyze the cross-border effect of tax cuts on R&D activity in the context of profit shifting. A tax cut in one location of a multinational enterprise reduces the user cost of capital for the whole group if profit shifting is possible and exerts a positive cross-border effect on R&D output. Using micro-level data, we find an increase of patent output of 15% upon the implementation of a foreign tax cut for firms with cross-border links. In addition, we find that foreign tax cuts prohibiting profit shifting generate a negative cross-border effect on average patent quality.