Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Thematic Overview: Charting the Evolution of Knowledge Flows
- Part I Conceptual Framework
- Part II Measuring Trade in Knowledge
- Part III Impact of Knowledge Flows on Trade and Development
- Part IV Policy, Regulatory and Legislative Frameworks
- Part V Looking Forward
- Index
6 - A Missing Link in the Analysis of Global Value Chains: Cross-Border Flows of Intangible Assets, Taxation and Related Measurement Implications
from Part II - Measuring Trade in Knowledge
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 February 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Thematic Overview: Charting the Evolution of Knowledge Flows
- Part I Conceptual Framework
- Part II Measuring Trade in Knowledge
- Part III Impact of Knowledge Flows on Trade and Development
- Part IV Policy, Regulatory and Legislative Frameworks
- Part V Looking Forward
- Index
Summary
Global fragmented production and associated trade in intermediate products has changed how economists study globalization and how new public policies are shaped. This creates a need for understanding cross-border flows of disembodied knowledge, often associated with intellectual property (IP). However, data on these international IP-related knowledge flows, specifically, cross-border payments for use of IP, are distorted. The chapter shows how tax planning by multinational enterprises has seriously distorted the measurement of cross-border IP flows, with tax-induced mismeasurement potentially exceeding 35% of global Charges for Use of Intellectual Property (CUIP), and more for individual countries, particularly high-tax-rate countries. This chapter describes the trend of increased cross-border trade in ideas, assessing the main data sources and distortions to these flows. The chapter analyses the tax effects on cross border IP measures and the magnitudes and trends in the tax distortions. It concludes with some possible avenues for reducing mismeasurement distortions, directed at national statisticians, national tax administrations, policymakers and analysts, and academics.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Trade in KnowledgeIntellectual Property, Trade and Development in a Transformed Global Economy, pp. 194 - 217Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022