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The Tax Advantage of Big Business

How the Structure of Corporate Taxation Fuels Concentration and Inequality

Bibliographic Data

ID2317445
AuthorsSandy Brian Hager (0000-0002-1205-3623, City, University of London, corresponding author), Joseph Baines (0000-0002-0554-2998, King's College London)
Year2020
Volume48
Issue2
Pages275-305
Publication date2020-06-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitics & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0032-3292 • E-ISSN: 1552-7514
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0032329220911778
OpenAlexW3009915535
LanguageEN
Citations received12

Corporate concentration in the United States has been on the rise in recent years, sparking a heated debate about its causes, consequences, and potential remedies. This article examines a facet of public policy that has been neglected in the debate: corporate taxation. Developing the first empirical mapping of the effective tax rates of nonfinancial corporations disaggregated by size and broken down by jurisdiction, the article reveals a striking tax advantage for big business at home and abroad. The analysis goes on to show how persistent regressivity in the tax structure is bound up with the increasing relative power of large corporations within the corporate universe, as well as a shift in firm-level power relations. As large corporations become less disposed to investments that may indirectly benefit ordinary workers, they become more disposed to shareholder value enhancement that directly benefits the asset-rich. What this means is that the corporate tax structure is connected not only to rising corporate concentration but also to widening household inequality

Asset (computer security · Big business · Business · Corporate governance · Corporate Tax · Economics · Jurisdiction · Market economy · Monetary economics · Public economics · Shareholder · Tax avoidance · Value-added tax · Corporate Taxation and Avoidance · Finance · Law · Taxation and Compliance Studies

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Citations per year2
Citation span2020 - 2025 (6)
Highly citedNo

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