Country size and tax policy for international joint ventures in an integrated market

We investigate international joint ventures in an integrated market using a two-country model with asymmetric sizes. We show that although the domestic firm in the small country is less efficient, it is possible that the government of the small country imposes a higher tax than that of the large country. Moreover, we show that even if the domestic firm in the large country is less efficient, a joint venture by this firm and the foreign firm could be more productive, and the foreign firm could prefer to form a joint venture partnership with the domestic firm in the large country. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.