Patent Transfers and Profit Shifting of Multinational Firms

This study examines the location of patent applications and their relocations by multinationals in the context of tax profit shifting: first, an original dataset is constructed that allows us to examine international patent relocation over the lifetime of a patent. Second, the causal effect of taxation on profit shifting by multinational firms is identified using quasi-experiments arising from domestic and international tax reforms. Furthermore, the joint input characteristic of intangible assets is empirically tested to investigate the costs and benefits of profit shifting through the (re-)location of intangible assets.