How the Quality of Macro-Institutions and Corporate Governance Influence International Profit Shifting?

Abstract

Profit shifting structures deployed for tax management by many multinational corporations have recently come under intense regulatory scrutiny and heated public debate around the world. At the heart of the debate is the fact that profit shifting can often lead to conflicting outcomes for societies, shareholders and managers — posing complex financial and ethical dilemmas. In a recently published paper we propose a conceptual framework of the underlying costs and incentives of profit shifting in a multi-stakeholder world. We analyze the pathways through which the quality of a country's macro-institutions and corporate governance jointly determine the eventual net-gains of profit shifting. We deliberate on the salient aspects of the paper from the perspective of decision makers — shareholders, managers, and policy makers.