@techreport{GreilSchwarzStein2018, author = {Greil, Stefan and Schwarz, Christian and Stein, Stefan}, title = {Perceived Fairness in the Taxation of a Digital Business Model}, editor = {Kalmring, Dirk}, address = {D{\"u}sseldorf}, issn = {2365-3361}, doi = {10.20385/2365-3361/2018.47}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:hbz:due62-opus-15759}, pages = {27}, year = {2018}, abstract = {The "fair" taxation of digital business models is challenging. One of the key aspects - both policy makers and the public opinion consider as most pressuring - is the determination of intragroup transfer prices for intangibles used in digital business models. In this paper, we address the issue of a "perceived fair" taxation of the digital economy in the light of the arm's length principle based on a survey with transfer pricing experts. The aim of the survey is not to estimate arm's length profit allocations but rather to elicit fairness considerations in different transfer pricing related scenarios. In a digital economy framework where arm's length profits are distributed extremely inequitably, subjects perceive this distribution of profits as most unfair compared to more balanced scenarios. Consequently, subjects propose a "fair" distribution of profits that substantially differs from the exogenously given arm's length allocation. In scenarios with a more balanced arm's length allocation of profits, we find that the perceived fairness for the expert groups increases while a control group of business students is almost not influenced by the arm's length allocation of profits.}, language = {en} } @techreport{GreilSchwarzStein2018, author = {Greil, Stefan and Schwarz, Christian and Stein, Stefan}, title = {Fairness and the Arm's Length Principle in a Digital Economy}, number = {42}, address = {D{\"u}sseldorf}, issn = {2365-3361}, doi = {10.20385/2365-3361/2018.42}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:hbz:due62-opus-12029}, year = {2018}, abstract = {The OECD Base Erosion Profit Shifting (BEPS) Initiative as well as the current fairness oriented public discussion regarding the taxation of digital business models highlight the importance and complexity of the arm's length principle. In a theoretical model of an internationally fragmented digital good's production process, we show that fairness considerations of tax authorities (namely inequity aversion) can result in a falling apart between a perceived "fair" and arm's length distribution of profits across tax jurisdictions. Our model predicts that a multinational firm follows the fundamental paradigm of international taxation, i.e. the arm's length principle, to properly incentivize internal agents involved in the production of a digital good. However, with inequity averse tax authorities, we find that tax authorities "prefer" a more equal distribution of profits compared to the arm's length allocation. From a multinational firm's perspective, inequity aversion among tax authorities dampens the strategic effect to - in accordance with arm's length principle - shift profits to low tax countries.}, language = {en} } @article{NowakSchwarzSuedekum2016, author = {Nowak, Verena and Schwarz, Christian and Suedekum, Jens}, title = {Asymmetric spiders: Supplier heterogeneity and the organization of firms}, series = {Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'{\´e}conomique}, volume = {49}, journal = {Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'{\´e}conomique}, number = {2}, publisher = {Wiley}, doi = {10.1111/caje.12209}, pages = {663 -- 684}, year = {2016}, language = {en} }