Why do effective tax rates fall with capital intensity?
分解了企业有效税率随资本密集度下降的两个渠道，并利用六个欧洲国家的企业数据发现，匈牙利、西班牙和意大利的资本密集度每提高10%，有效税率分别下降约0.30、0.11和0.10个百分点，而法国、德国和英国则无显著关系。
This paper examines why corporate effective tax rates (ETRs) tend to decline as capital per worker increases. We decompose the ETR into two channels: a statutory cost-recovery component that mechanically lowers the taxable base with capital accumulation, and a discretionary tax-planning component whose effectiveness rises with capital intensity. Using firm-level data from six European countries, we estimate this relationship non-parametrically. We find that a 10% increase in capital intensity reduces the ETR by about 0.30 percentage points in Hungary, 0.11 points in Spain, and 0.10 points in Italy. By contrast, no significant relationship is found for France, Germany, and the UK, suggesting cross-country differences in cost-recovery provisions and enforcement environments.