Does High Corporate Tax Rates Attract Foreign Direct Investment

A part of the empirical literature seems to support the view that international differences in corporate taxation are important determinants of FDI location, while another part argue that FDI are attracted by the business environment, without taking into consideration any directly or indirectly influence of fiscal policy. In this context, the aim of the present paper is to analyze the relation between corporate tax rates competition and Foreign Direct Investment location and to offer conjectures as to the reasons behind. In this purpose the paper analyze the evolution of FDI in European Union, in the developed and emerging economies together with the national differences in corporate taxation, for the period 2005-2010. The study’s results suggest that fiscal competition between governments for FDI is not necessarily a corporate tax rates competition, but a business environment one, which is determined primarily by fiscal policy.