IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/rqfnac/v59y2022i1d10.1007_s11156-022-01042-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do information sources matter in corporate tax avoidance? The roles of peer effects and director interlocks

Author

Listed:
  • Yi-Hsing Liao

    (Chung Yuan Christian University)

  • Teng-Sheng Sang

    (Chung Yuan Christian University)

  • Yuan-Tang Tsai

    (National Taipei University)

Abstract

How information sources affect a company’s tax avoidance behavior is an important but still unresolved issue. This paper examines the effect of information sources in the form of peer effects and director interlocks on corporate tax avoidance. We find that a company has a higher level of tax avoidance if its industry peers take an aggressive tax avoidance strategy, matching the herding effect found in tax avoidance behavior. The effect is stronger for firms with more connected directors, which is consistent with the spillover effect of tax avoidance behavior through shared directors. We further provide evidence suggesting that private information conveyed by interlocking directors is more valuable to a focal firm under a poor peer information environment. Overall, our empirical results suggest that private information spread by interlocking directors is more influential in industries with a poor peer information environment, supporting the view that the partial substitution of private information for public information is a valuable source of peer information.

Suggested Citation

  • Yi-Hsing Liao & Teng-Sheng Sang & Yuan-Tang Tsai, 2022. "Do information sources matter in corporate tax avoidance? The roles of peer effects and director interlocks," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 59(1), pages 339-382, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:rqfnac:v:59:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1007_s11156-022-01042-2
    DOI: 10.1007/s11156-022-01042-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11156-022-01042-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11156-022-01042-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Field, Laura Casares & Mkrtchyan, Anahit, 2017. "The effect of director experience on acquisition performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(3), pages 488-511.
    2. Chen, Shuping & Chen, Xia & Cheng, Qiang & Shevlin, Terry, 2010. "Are family firms more tax aggressive than non-family firms?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(1), pages 41-61, January.
    3. David A. Weisbach, 2002. "An Economic Analysis of Anti-Tax-Avoidance Doctrines," American Law and Economics Review, American Law and Economics Association, vol. 4(1), pages 88-115, January.
    4. Anderson, Ronald C. & Duru, Augustine & Reeb, David M., 2009. "Founders, heirs, and corporate opacity in the United States," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 205-222, May.
    5. Wang, Hong-Da & Cho, Chia-Ching & Lin, Chan-Jane, 2019. "Related party transactions, business relatedness, and firm performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 411-425.
    6. Hui-Wen Tang & Chong-Chuo Chang, 2015. "Does corporate governance affect the relationship between earnings management and firm performance? An endogenous switching regression model," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 33-58, July.
    7. Shackelford, Douglas A. & Shevlin, Terry, 2001. "Empirical tax research in accounting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-3), pages 321-387, September.
    8. Sabrina Chi & Shawn X. Huang & Juan Manuel Sanchez, 2017. "CEO Inside Debt Incentives and Corporate Tax Sheltering," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(4), pages 837-876, September.
    9. Bikhchandani, Sushil & Hirshleifer, David & Welch, Ivo, 1992. "A Theory of Fads, Fashion, Custom, and Cultural Change in Informational Cascades," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(5), pages 992-1026, October.
    10. Devenow, Andrea & Welch, Ivo, 1996. "Rational herding in financial economics," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(3-5), pages 603-615, April.
    11. Armstrong, Christopher S. & Blouin, Jennifer L. & Jagolinzer, Alan D. & Larcker, David F., 2015. "Corporate governance, incentives, and tax avoidance," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 1-17.
    12. Benjamin C. Ayers & John (Xuefeng) Jiang & Stacie K. Laplante, 2009. "Taxable Income as a Performance Measure: The Effects of Tax Planning and Earnings Quality," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(1), pages 15-54, March.
    13. Larcker, David F. & So, Eric C. & Wang, Charles C.Y., 2013. "Boardroom centrality and firm performance," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 225-250.
    14. Chansog (Francis) Kim & Liandong Zhang, 2016. "Corporate Political Connections and Tax Aggressiveness," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 33(1), pages 78-114, March.
    15. Akbas, Ferhat & Meschke, Felix & Wintoki, M. Babajide, 2016. "Director networks and informed traders," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 1-23.
    16. Armstrong, Christopher S. & Balakrishnan, Karthik & Cohen, Daniel, 2012. "Corporate governance and the information environment: Evidence from state antitakeover laws," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 185-204.
    17. Chen, Zhihong & Li, Oliver Zhen & Zou, Hong, 2016. "Directors׳ and officers׳ liability insurance and the cost of equity," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 100-120.
    18. Iftekhar Hasan & Chun‐Keung (Stan) Hoi & Qiang Wu & Hao Zhang, 2017. "Does Social Capital Matter in Corporate Decisions? Evidence from Corporate Tax Avoidance," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(3), pages 629-668, June.
    19. Hanlon, Michelle & Slemrod, Joel, 2009. "What does tax aggressiveness signal? Evidence from stock price reactions to news about tax shelter involvement," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1-2), pages 126-141, February.
    20. Kaustia, Markku & Rantala, Ville, 2015. "Social learning and corporate peer effects," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(3), pages 653-669.
    21. Chyz, James A. & Ching Leung, Winnie Siu & Zhen Li, Oliver & Meng Rui, Oliver, 2013. "Labor unions and tax aggressiveness," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(3), pages 675-698.
    22. Haß, Lars Helge & Vergauwe, Skrålan & Zhang, Qiyu, 2014. "Corporate governance and the information environment: Evidence from Chinese stock markets," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 106-119.
    23. Mark T. Leary & Michael R. Roberts, 2014. "Do Peer Firms Affect Corporate Financial Policy?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(1), pages 139-178, February.
    24. Cesare Fracassi & Geoffrey Tate, 2012. "External Networking and Internal Firm Governance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(1), pages 153-194, February.
    25. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2017_021 is not listed on IDEAS
    26. Larcker, David F. & Rusticus, Tjomme O., 2010. "On the use of instrumental variables in accounting research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 186-205, April.
    27. Albuquerque, Ana, 2009. "Peer firms in relative performance evaluation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 69-89, October.
    28. Sonja Olhoft Rego & Ryan Wilson, 2012. "Equity Risk Incentives and Corporate Tax Aggressiveness," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3), pages 775-810, June.
    29. Cen, Ling & Maydew, Edward L. & Zhang, Liandong & Zuo, Luo, 2017. "Customer–supplier relationships and corporate tax avoidance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(2), pages 377-394.
    30. Mitchell A. Petersen, 2009. "Estimating Standard Errors in Finance Panel Data Sets: Comparing Approaches," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 435-480, January.
    31. Ellison, Glenn & Fudenberg, Drew, 1993. "Rules of Thumb for Social Learning," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 101(4), pages 612-643, August.
    32. Shu, Pei-Gi & Chiang, Sue-Jane, 2020. "The impact of corporate governance on corporate social performance: Cases from listed firms in Taiwan," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    33. Shevlin, Terry & Shivakumar, Lakshmanan & Urcan, Oktay, 2019. "Macroeconomic effects of corporate tax policy," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1).
    34. Shroff, Nemit & Verdi, Rodrigo S. & Yost, Benjamin P., 2017. "When does the peer information environment matter?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 183-214.
    35. James A. Chyz & Fabio B. Gaertner & Asad Kausar & Luke Watson, 2019. "Overconfidence and Corporate Tax Policy," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 1114-1145, September.
    36. Conlisk, John, 1980. "Costly optimizers versus cheap imitators," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 1(3), pages 275-293, September.
    37. Boone, Audra L. & White, Joshua T., 2015. "The effect of institutional ownership on firm transparency and information production," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(3), pages 508-533.
    38. Kothari, S.P. & Leone, Andrew J. & Wasley, Charles E., 2005. "Performance matched discretionary accrual measures," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 163-197, February.
    39. Abhijit V. Banerjee, 1992. "A Simple Model of Herd Behavior," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(3), pages 797-817.
    40. Klein, April, 2002. "Audit committee, board of director characteristics, and earnings management," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 375-400, August.
    41. Dan S. Dhaliwal & Cristi A. Gleason & Lillian F. Mills, 2004. "Last†Chance Earnings Management: Using the Tax Expense to Meet Analysts' Forecasts," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(2), pages 431-459, June.
    42. John Bizjak & Michael Lemmon & Ryan Whitby, 2009. "Option Backdating and Board Interlocks," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(11), pages 4821-4847, November.
    43. Gilles Hilary & Gary C. Biddle, 2006. "Accounting Quality and Firm-Level Capital Investment," Post-Print hal-00481720, HAL.
    44. Cheng, Shijun & Felix, Robert & Zhao, Yijiang, 2019. "Board interlock networks and informed short sales," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 198-211.
    45. Warfield, Terry D. & Wild, John J. & Wild, Kenneth L., 1995. "Managerial ownership, accounting choices, and informativeness of earnings," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 61-91, July.
    46. Kelvin K. F. Law & Lillian F. Mills, 2017. "Military experience and corporate tax avoidance," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 141-184, March.
    47. Lin, Chen & Officer, Micah S. & Wang, Rui & Zou, Hong, 2013. "Directors' and officers' liability insurance and loan spreads," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(1), pages 37-60.
    48. Cai, Ye & Sevilir, Merih, 2012. "Board connections and M&A transactions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(2), pages 327-349.
    49. Cai, Jie & Walkling, Ralph A. & Yang, Ke, 2016. "The Price of Street Friends: Social Networks, Informed Trading, and Shareholder Costs," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 51(3), pages 801-837, June.
    50. Armstrong, Christopher S. & Blouin, Jennifer L. & Jagolinzer, Alan D. & Larcker, David F., 2015. "Corporate Governance, Incentives, and Tax Avoidance," Research Papers 2134, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    51. Joanne Horton & Yuval Millo & George Serafeim, 2012. "Resources or Power? Implications of Social Networks on Compensation and Firm Performance," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(3-4), pages 399-426, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kovermann, Jost & Velte, Patrick, 2019. "The impact of corporate governance on corporate tax avoidance—A literature review," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 1-1.
    2. Mahmud Hossain & Gerald J. Lobo & Santanu Mitra, 2023. "Firm-level political risk and corporate tax avoidance," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 60(1), pages 295-327, January.
    3. Fangjun Wang & Shuolei Xu & Junqin Sun & Charles P. Cullinan, 2020. "Corporate Tax Avoidance: A Literature Review And Research Agenda," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(4), pages 793-811, September.
    4. Onur Bayar & Fariz Huseynov & Sabuhi Sardarli, 2018. "Corporate Governance, Tax Avoidance, and Financial Constraints," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 47(3), pages 651-677, September.
    5. Chaudhry, Neeru, 2021. "Tax aggressiveness and idiosyncratic volatility," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    6. Ke Na & Wenjia Yan, 2022. "Languages and corporate tax avoidance," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 148-184, March.
    7. Shen, Yuxin & Xu, Hanwen & Yu, Shuangli & Xu, Wei & Shen, Yongjian, 2022. "Air pollution and tax avoidance: New evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 402-420.
    8. Lee, Ye Ji, 2021. "The effects of analysts’ tax expense forecast accuracy on corporate tax avoidance: An international analysis," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2).
    9. Cristi A. Gleason & Sascha Kieback & Martin Thomsen & Christoph Watrin, 2021. "Monitoring or payroll maximization? What happens when workers enter the boardroom?," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 1046-1087, September.
    10. Ming-Hua Liu & Shaohua Tian & Yang Zhang, 2023. "CEO marital status and corporate tax planning behavior," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 61(4), pages 1207-1242, November.
    11. Chen, Shuping & Huang, Ying & Li, Ningzhong & Shevlin, Terry, 2019. "How does quasi-indexer ownership affect corporate tax planning?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 278-296.
    12. Qingyuan Li & Edward L. Maydew & Richard H. Willis & Li Xu, 2022. "Corporate tax behavior and political uncertainty: Evidence from national elections around the world," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(9-10), pages 1605-1641, October.
    13. Dain C. Donelson & Jennifer L. Glenn & Christopher G. Yust, 2022. "Is tax aggressiveness associated with tax litigation risk? Evidence from D&O Insurance," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 27(2), pages 519-569, June.
    14. Christofer Adrian & Mukesh Garg & Anh Viet Pham & Soon-Yeow Phang & Cameron Truong, 2023. "Do Natural Disasters Affect Corporate Tax Avoidance? The Case of Drought," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 186(1), pages 105-135, August.
    15. A. Hong, Hyun & Lobo, Gerald J. & Ryou, Ji Woo, 2019. "Financial market development and firm investment in tax avoidance: Evidence from credit default swap market," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 1-1.
    16. Panagiotis Karavitis & Pantelis Kazakis & Tianyue Xu, 2022. "CFO Working Experience and Tax Avoidance," Working Papers 2022_14, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    17. Jing, Wei & Zhang, Xueyong, 2021. "Online social networks and corporate investment similarity," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    18. Chao Jiang & Thomas R. Kubick & Mihail K. Miletkov & M. Babajide Wintoki, 2018. "Offshore Expertise for Onshore Companies: Director Connections to Island Tax Havens and Corporate Tax Policy," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(7), pages 3241-3268, July.
    19. Seo, Hojun, 2021. "Peer effects in corporate disclosure decisions," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1).
    20. Hasan, Mostafa Monzur & Lobo, Gerald J. & Qiu, Buhui, 2021. "Organizational capital, corporate tax avoidance, and firm value," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Tax avoidance; Peer effects; Director interlocks; Peer information environment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion and Avoidance
    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:rqfnac:v:59:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1007_s11156-022-01042-2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.