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This paper uses panel data on bilateral FDI flows in the European Union to empirically analyze the impact of labor and corporate taxations on FDI decisions. While the effect of corporate taxes on FDI is well documented, the impact of labor taxes on FDI has been neglected. This is surprising since labor taxation may influence FDI as well. The reason for this is that taxation of labor affects the production cost and the ability to attract and retain productive labor and ultimately the investment return. By employing a Heckman two-step estimation model, which controls for possible sample selection bias due to many zero bilateral observations, it is found that labor taxes do influence FDI decisions. The effect is significant both statistically and economically, although the magnitude is smaller than for corporate tax.

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The voluminous tax competition literature suggests that increased economic integration leads to reduced tax rates and suboptimal levels of government spending as countries compete for mobile factors of production. Integration may influence not only the size of the government but also the structure of public spending. Comprehensive studies analyzing the effect of integration on the overall structure of government spending are rare, however. This article fills this void by providing an empirical analysis of the effects of economic integration on the overall structure of public spending in a number of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries using panel data on the different government spending components for the period 1970 to 2002. The authors find that integration negatively influences government consumption and investment but that there is no empirical evidence that transfers are positively or negatively affected by integration, as suggested by the compensation and efficiency views, respectively.