FDI, transfer pricing and the measurement of R&D intensity

An important determinant of a region's attractiveness to foreign investors is its rate of corporation tax. Besides stimulating real economic activity, low corporation tax rates also induce multinational corporations to shift profits into the jurisdiction, frequently through the manipulation of transfer prices. This practice can lead to a substantial distortion of output figures. Since national or sectoral R&D intensities are usually measured relative to output, transfer pricing also therefore distorts these measurements. The present paper proposes a simple alternative measure of R&D intensity. Implementation on Irish data shows that the two approaches yield substantially different results.