On October 21st, the Business Taxation Group hosted the 1st WU Vienna Tax Camp, which was moderated by Harald Amberger (Assistant Professor, WU Vienna). During this half-day event, the following papers were presented and discussed:

• Antonio de Vito (Assistant Professor, IE Business School, Spain): Minority Shareholders and Tax Avoidance: Taking Evidence Global. Using a major corporate governance reform in Italy and a panel of public firms across 33 countries, Antonio provides evidence that laws empowering minority shareholders hinder corporate tax avoidance, consistent with shareholder protection laws deterring tax avoidance through reduced income diversion.

• Barbara Stage (Assistant Professor, WHU, Germany): Business model digitalization, competition and tax savings. Using textual analysis techniques to capture firms’ adoption of digital business models, Elisa Casi (NHH, Norway), Petro Lisowsky (Boston University, USA), Barbara Stage and Maximillian Todtenhaupt (NHH, Norway) provide evidence that adopting a digital business model leads to negative economic effects on the performance of non-digitalizing competitors, especially vis-à-vis their market share.

• Cinthia Valle Ruiz (Assistant Professor, IESEG School of Management, France): Tax and Nontax Government Policies and the Location and Relocation of Patents. Using granular affiliate-level data for worldwide MNCs, Lisa De Simone (University of Texas, USA), Kenneth Klassen (University of Waterloo, Canada) and Cinthia Valle Ruiz provide evidence that the location of granted and acquired patents responds negatively to corporate income tax rates and stricter employment protection laws.

The joint lunch was the ideal opportunity to get together and exchange ideas in an informal setting. We would like to thank all presenters and are already looking forward to a continuation of the WU Vienna Tax Camp series!