Double Taxation Treaties with the US and Environmental Quality in Emerging Economies

We focus on the role of double taxation treaties on environmental quality, to our knowledge the first empirical study to do so. Tax treaties are primarily implemented to remove double taxation, which helps promote international trade and investment. However, they are also aimed to address tax evasion and avoidance, which tends to have the opposite effect. As a result, the environmental impact is unclear. Specifically, we exploit the variation in the effective dates of the United States tax treaties with emerging and developing countries between 1990 to 2014 by applying difference-in-differences methods. We find that tax treaties significantly help reduce carbon dioxide emissions in emerging markets. This appears to be driven by the reduction in investments in pollution-intensive industries after tax treaty enactments. JEL Classifications: H3, H25, F18, F21