Size-Dependent Tax Enforcement and Compliance: Global Evidence and Aggregate Implications

This paper studies how tax enforcement and tax compliance varies with firm size and its macroeconomic consequences. The identification strategy uses the ranking of industries' average firm size in the United States as an instrument for the size ranking of the same industries in developing countries. Data on 125,000 firms in 140 countries shows that tax enforcement and compliance increase with firm size. When quantified in a general equilibrium model, removing size dependent taxation leads to gains in Total Factor Productivity of 1–2%.