{"title":"Overconfidence and Tax Avoidance: The Role of CEO and CFO Interaction","authors":"Tien‐Shih Hsieh, Zhihong Wang, Sebahattin Demirkan","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2843355","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2843355","url":null,"abstract":"We investigate how top executives’ overconfidence may influence firms’ tax reporting behavior and the role of CEO and CFO interaction in this relationship. We adopt an equity measure to capture overconfident CEOs and CFOs, and utilize multiple measure to identify companies’ tax avoidance behavior. We find that companies with overconfident CEOs (CFOs) are more likely to engage in tax avoidance activities, relative to firms with non-overconfident CEOs (CFOs). We also document an interaction effect showing that companies with overconfident CEOs are more likely to engage in tax avoidance activities when these companies also have overconfident CFOs, relative to those with non-overconfident CFOs. Our results suggest that CFOs, as CEOs’ business partners, play an important role in facilitating and executing overconfident CEOs’ decisions on tax avoidance. Our study helps investors and regulators understand companies’ decision-making processes with regard to tax avoidance.","PeriodicalId":161200,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Firm (Topic)","volume":"152 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123645005","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Impact of Tax Changes on the Short-Run Investment Behaviour of New Zealand Firms","authors":"R. Fabling, R. Kneller, L. Sanderson","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2606417","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2606417","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines firm-level investment responses to exogenous changes in the forward looking user cost of capital associated with reforms to the corporate and personal tax system over the last decade. Adjustments to personal tax rates and fiscal depreciation allowances provide a direct lever through which government policy can affect the cost of capital faced by firms. The effect of these tax adjustments differs across firms according to their asset structure, providing both inter-temporal and inter-firm variation in UCCs and enabling an assessment of the short-run impact of UCC changes on investment behaviour. This analysis shows that while tax-induced changes in the UCC have significantly affected investment behaviour among some firms, the aggregate impacts are likely to have been negligible as the industries in which investment impacts are observed make a very small contribution to aggregate investment.","PeriodicalId":161200,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Firm (Topic)","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129599299","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Laura Alfaro, P. Conconi, Harald Fadinger, A. Newman
{"title":"Do Prices Determine Vertical Integration? Evidence from Trade Policy","authors":"Laura Alfaro, P. Conconi, Harald Fadinger, A. Newman","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1625503","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1625503","url":null,"abstract":"What is the relationship between product prices and vertical integration? While the literature has focused on how integration affects prices, this paper shows that prices can affect integration. Many theories in organizational economics and industrial organization posit that integration, while costly, increases productivity. If true, it follows from firms' maximizing behavior that higher prices cause firms to choose more integration. The reason is that at low prices, increases in revenue resulting from enhanced productivity are too small to justify the cost, whereas at higher prices, the revenue benefit exceeds the cost. Trade policy provides a source of exogenous price variation to assess the validity of this prediction: higher tariffs should lead to higher prices and therefore to more integration. We construct firm-level indices of vertical integration for a large set of countries and industries and exploit cross-section and time-series variation in import tariffs to examine their impact on firm boundaries. Our empirical results provide strong support for the view that output prices are a key determinant of vertical integration.","PeriodicalId":161200,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Firm (Topic)","volume":"45 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130252601","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"As Certain as Debt and Taxes: Estimating the Tax Sensitivity of Leverage from Exogenous State Tax Changes","authors":"Florian Heider, Alexander Ljungqvist","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2024200","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2024200","url":null,"abstract":"We use a natural experiment in the form of 121 staggered changes in corporate income tax rates across U.S. states to show that tax considerations are a first-order determinant of firms' capital structure choices. Over the period 1990-2011, firms increase long-term leverage by 104 basis points on average (or $32.5 million in extra debt) in response to an average tax increase of 131 basis points. Contrary to static trade-off theory, the tax sensitivity of leverage is asymmetric: firms do not reduce leverage in response to tax cuts. Using treatment reversals, we find this to be true even within-firm: tax increases that are later reversed nonetheless lead to permanent increases in a firm's leverage - an unexpected and novel form of hysteresis. Our findings are robust to various confounds such as unobserved variation in local business conditions, union power, or unemployment risk. Treatment effects are heterogeneous and confirm the tax channel: tax sensitivity is greater among profitable and investment-grade firms which respectively have a greater marginal tax benefit and lower marginal cost of issuing debt.","PeriodicalId":161200,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Firm (Topic)","volume":"2015 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114455640","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Macroeconomic Effects of Taxation on Firms in an Evasion and Informality Environment","authors":"Claudia Sánchez-Vela, J. Valero-Gil","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1946346","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1946346","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper we analyze the effects of two size-dependent policies established for Mexican firms in a context where evasion, informality and transaction costs favor small firms over large ones. To analyze these effects we use a model that simulates the US economy and apply these policies and transaction costs to the model, while allowing for evasion and informality as they are observed in Mexico. Lastly, we compare the resultant simulated economy with data from the Mexican economy and conclude that these policies increase the employment share of small firms. We also study the case when the workers do not fully value mandated benefits and its effects on the workers’ wage and on the economy.","PeriodicalId":161200,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Firm (Topic)","volume":"102 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125754159","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sales Tax Competition and a Multinational with a Decreasing Marginal Cost","authors":"A. Alexandrov, Özlem Bedre-Defolie","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1797507","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1797507","url":null,"abstract":"We examine a multinational firm which has a decreasing marginal cost, and the optimal sales tax policies of the regions where that firm operates. We show that the regions set higher sales taxes than those given by a cooperative equilibrium. Each region fails to fully internalize the effects of its tax level on another region's welfare and the incentives for that region's authority. Exponential cost functions which exhibit economies of scale (for example Cobb-Douglas) and linear demand functions satisfy our assumptions. Our results suggest the need to coordinate sales tax levels between countries and between smaller entities, like states in the United States. Smaller regions benefit more from such coordination. Lowering sales taxes in each region increases welfare for all regions, profits for firms, and consumer welfare.","PeriodicalId":161200,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Firm (Topic)","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-03-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128694218","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Kite Industry: Revival of Kite Industry (Different Ways to Look Into It)","authors":"Shamail Arzoo","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.1744213","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.1744213","url":null,"abstract":"This research paper will tell you about the downfall of kite industry, the reasons behind it and how it is affecting the country socially and economically. Basant and kites flying is historical event and part of the subcontinent culture. Around 2,000,000 families are related with the kite business in Pakistan and have lost their sources of livelihood because of the ban on kites and Basant event. So in this research we have tried to find out some means through which they can promote the industry by making people aware that Basant event is not the cause of those grave accidents and accidents happens because of the negligence of people and poor security measures of Government. We have proposed some strategies which can be very helpful in reviving our dying kite industry.","PeriodicalId":161200,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Firm (Topic)","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-01-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133112948","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Support for Business Succession in the European Union","authors":"K. Wach","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.1750069","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.1750069","url":null,"abstract":"The paper summarizes - from the point of view of management sciences - institutional factors that matter for conducting the policy of support for business succession by member states in the European Union. Describing challenges for family business in Europe is the entering point for the discussion. The main part focuses on the chronological analysis of the EU documents in favour of ownership transfer and succession of enterprises.","PeriodicalId":161200,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Firm (Topic)","volume":"44 8","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131804976","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mohamed Arouri, G. Caporale, C. Rault, Robert Sova, A. Sova
{"title":"Environmental Regulation and Competitiveness: Evidence from Romania","authors":"Mohamed Arouri, G. Caporale, C. Rault, Robert Sova, A. Sova","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1650733","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1650733","url":null,"abstract":"According to the pollution haven hypotheses differences in environmental regulation affect trade flows and plant location. Specifically, environmental stringency should decrease exports and increase imports of \"dirty\" goods. This paper estimates a gravity model to establish whether the implementation of more stringent regulations in Romania has indeed affected its competitiveness and decreased exports towards its European trading partners. Our findings do not provide empirical support to the pollution haven hypothesis, i.e. environmental stringency is not found to affect significantly total trade, or its components (pollution intensive trade and pollution intensive trade related to non-resource-based trade).","PeriodicalId":161200,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Firm (Topic)","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130292417","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Corporate Taxation and Corporate Governance","authors":"Marko Köthenbürger, M. Stimmelmayr","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1532685","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1532685","url":null,"abstract":"The effects of corporate taxation on firm behavior have been extensively discussed in the neoclassical model of firm behavior which abstracts from agency problems. As emphasized by the corporate governance literature, corporate investment behavior is however crucially influenced by diverging interests between shareholders and managers. We set up an agency model and analyze the crucial issue in corporate taxation of whether the normal return on investment should be exempted from taxation. The findings suggest that the divergence of interests may be intensified and welfare reduced if the corporate tax system exempts the normal return on investment from taxation. The optimal system may well use the full return on investment as a tax base. Hence, tax systems such as an Allowance for Corporate Equity (ACE) or a Cash-flow tax do not have the familiar efficiency-enhancing effects in the presence of corporate agency problems.","PeriodicalId":161200,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Firm (Topic)","volume":"322 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122331291","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}