Globalización y política tributaria en América Latina : una evaluación empírica

Abstract

Following the theoretical and empirical findings reviewed in an article published in a previous issue of Estudios Internacionales on the impact of globalisation on fiscal policies of Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), countries1, this paper presents empirical research on the impact of globalisation and democracy on tax policies of 17 Latin American countries in the 1980s and 1990s. Using different indicators to capture globalisation (capital mobility and openness), democracy (Index of Freedom) and the statutory tax rate (Corporate Income Tax Rate, Personal Income Tax Rate and Value- Added Tax Rate), this article analyses whether globalisation presents a negative or positive correlation with capital and high income tax rates, labour and consumers tax rates in Latin American countries considered. Additionally, it assesses whether globalisation and democracy exert a «compensatory» or «efficient» effect on capital, labour and consumers tax rates in Latin America.