International Tax Avoidance and U.S. International Trade

In the context of a model of profit-maximizing multinational firms, this paper demonstrates three types of influences that international tax avoidance is expected to have on international trade. International tax avoidance affects the location decisions of multinational firms as well as the prices and quantities of their intrafirm trade transactions. The paper then investigates hypotheses generated from these theoretical predictions using a panel fata set on U.S. multinational firm operations. Evidence is found of a substantial and statistically significant relationship between tax avoidance incentives and the pattern of U.S. international trade.