Can Capital Income Taxes Survive in Open Economies?
最优税收理论预测小开放经济体不应征收资本所得税，但现实中各国却普遍征收。本文通过双重征税协定和主导资本出口国的Stackelberg领导行为解释了这一矛盾。
ABSTRACT Optimal‐tax theory forecasts that small open economies should not tax capital income. Yet, countries do tax capital income. Why the inconsistency? This paper shows that use of the double‐taxation convention, whereby governments credit taxes paid abroad against domestic taxes, helps explain this inconsistency. In particular, capital income will be taxed if a dominant capital exporter acts as a Stackelberg leader when setting its tax policy. Due to the convention, other countries will then tax capital imports, making it attractive for the dominant capital exporter to tax capital income. Without a dominant capital exporter, however, the model still forecasts no capital‐income taxes.