Dividend and Corporate Taxation in an Agency Model of the Firm
Abstract
Recent evidence on the effect of dividend taxes on firm behavior is inconsistent with neoclassical theories of dividend and corporate taxation. We develop a simple agency model in which managers and shareholders have conflicting interests to explain the evidence. In this model, dividend taxation induces managers to undertake unproductive investments by retaining earnings, and creates a first-order deadweight cost. In contrast, corporate taxes do not distort the manager's payout decision and may only create second-order efficiency costs. Corporate income taxation may therefore be a more efficient way to generate revenue than dividend taxation, challenging existing intuitions based on neoclassical models. (JEL D21, G35, H25, H32)Download Info
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Bibliographic Info
Article provided by American Economic Association in its journal American Economic Journal: Economic Policy.
Volume (Year): 2 (2010)
Issue (Month): 3 (August)
Pages: 1-31
Note: DOI: 10.1257/pol.2.3.1
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Related research
Keywords:Find related papers by JEL classification:
- D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
- G35 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Payout Policy
- H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
- H32 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Firm
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Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Marko Köthenbürger & Michael Stimmelmayr, 2009. "Corporate Taxation and Corporate Governance," CESifo Working Paper Series 2881, CESifo Group Munich.
- Christian Keuschnigg & Evelyn Ribi, 2010. "Business Taxation, Corporate Finance and Economic Performance," University of St. Gallen Department of Economics working paper series 2010 2010-04, Department of Economics, University of St. Gallen.
- Seppo Kari & Jussi Laitila, 2012. "Non-linear dividend tax and dynamics of the firm," Working Papers 41, Government Institute for Economic Research Finland (VATT).
- Christian Keuschnigg & Evelyn Ribi, 2010.
"Profit Taxation, Innovation and the Financing of Heterogeneous Firms,"
University of St. Gallen Department of Economics working paper series 2010
2010-01, Department of Economics, University of St. Gallen.
- Keuschnigg, Christian & Ribi, Evelyn, 2010. "Profit Taxation, Innovation and the Financing of Heterogeneous Firms," CEPR Discussion Papers 7626, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
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