Measuring Effective Tax Rates in the Presence of Multiple Inputs: A Production Based Approach

We suggest a new method for comparing tax regimes acrossjurisdictions. The approach aggregates taxes on inputs by focussingon production, rather than investment, decisions. Taxes on variousinputs affect production decisions by increasing marginal costs.By calculating the difference between the tax-inclusive and tax-exclusivemarginal cost of production, we determine the effective excisetax rate on marginal costs implied by all of the various taxesimposed upon the firm‘s inputs. The effective tax rate on marginalcosts provides a convenient summary measure of the potentialimpact of taxes on all inputs on production location decisions. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 1997