IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/v94y2004i2p171-175.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Taxation and Corporate Payout Policy

Author

Listed:
  • James Poterba

Abstract

This paper presents new evidence on how corporate payout policy responds to the differential between the tax burden on dividend income and that on accruing capital gains. It describes the construction of weighted average marginal tax rate series for the period since 1929, and it suggests that the enactment of the Job Growth of Taxpayer Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 should raise the after-tax value of dividends relative to capital gains by more than five percentage points. The impact of this change on payout depends on the elasticity of dividend payments with respect to the after-tax value of dividend income relative to capital gains. Time series estimates suggest an elasticity of more than three, and imply that the recent tax reform could ultimately increase dividends by almost twenty percent.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • James Poterba, 2004. "Taxation and Corporate Payout Policy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(2), pages 171-175, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:94:y:2004:i:2:p:171-175
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/0002828041301416
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/0002828041301416
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    ---><---

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

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Auerbach, Alan J., 2002. "Taxation and corporate financial policy," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 19, pages 1251-1292, Elsevier.
    2. James M. Poterba & Lawrence H. Summers, 1984. "The Economic Effects of Dividend Taxation," Working papers 343, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics.
    3. Carroll, Robert & Hassett, Kevin A. & Mackie, James B. III, 2003. "The Effect of Dividend Tax Relief on Investment Incentives," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 56(3), pages 629-651, September.
    4. James M. Poterba, 1987. "Tax Policy and Corporate Saving," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 18(2), pages 455-516.
    5. Auerbach, Alan J. & Hassett, Kevin A., 2003. "On the marginal source of investment funds," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 205-232, January.
    6. Gravelle, Jane G., 2003. "Effects of Dividend Relief on Economic Growth, the Stock Market, and Corporate Tax Preferences," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 56(3), pages 653-672, September.
    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. Christian Keuschnigg & Martin Dietz, 2007. "A growth oriented dual income tax," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 14(2), pages 191-221, April.
    2. Alan J. Auerbach & Kevin A. Hassett, 2005. "The 2003 Dividend Tax Cuts and the Value of the Firm: An Event Study," NBER Working Papers 11449, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Hanlon, Michelle & Heitzman, Shane, 2010. "A review of tax research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 127-178, December.
    4. Richard W. Kopcke, 2005. "The taxation of equity, dividends, and stock prices," Public Policy Discussion Paper 05-1, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    5. François Gourio & Jianjun Miao, 2010. "Firm Heterogeneity and the Long-Run Effects of Dividend Tax Reform," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(1), pages 131-168, January.
    6. Clemens Sialm, 2005. "Tax Changes and Asset Pricing: Time-Series Evidence," NBER Working Papers 11756, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Trevor S. Harris & R. Glenn Hubbard & Deen Kemsley, 1999. "The Share Price Effects of Dividend Taxes and Tax Imputation Credits," NBER Working Papers 7445, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Tami Gurley-Calvez & Thomas J. Gilbert & Katherine Harper & Donald J. Marples & Kevin Daly, 2009. "Do Tax Incentives Affect Investment?," Public Finance Review, , vol. 37(4), pages 371-398, July.
    9. Katarzyna Bilicka & Irem Güçeri & Evangelos Koumanakos & Katarzyna Anna Bilicka & Irem Guceri, 2022. "Dividend Taxation and Firm Performance with Heterogeneous Payout Responses," CESifo Working Paper Series 10185, CESifo.
    10. Francois Gourio & Jianjun Miao, "undated". "Transitional Dynamics of Dividend Tax Reform," Boston University - Department of Economics - Working Papers Series wp2008-021, Boston University - Department of Economics.
    11. Francois Gourio & Jianjun Miao, 2011. "Transitional Dynamics of Dividend and Capital Gains Tax Cuts," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 14(2), pages 368-383, April.
    12. Francois Gourio & Jianjun Miao, 2011. "Transitional Dynamics of Dividend and Capital Gains Tax Cuts," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 14(2), pages 368-383, April.
    13. William Gbohoui, 2019. "Do Temporary Business Tax Cuts Matter? A General Equilibrium Analysis," IMF Working Papers 2019/029, International Monetary Fund.
    14. Ellen R. McGrattan & Edward C. Prescott, 2005. "Taxes, Regulations, and the Value of U.S. and U.K. Corporations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(3), pages 767-796.
    15. Matteo Ghilardi & Roy Zilberman, 2022. "Macroeconomic Effects of Dividend Taxation with Investment Credit Limits," IMF Working Papers 2022/127, International Monetary Fund.
    16. Carroll, Robert & Hassett, Kevin A. & Mackie, James B. III, 2003. "The Effect of Dividend Tax Relief on Investment Incentives," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 56(3), pages 629-651, September.
    17. Jason M. DeBacker, 2011. "Capital Taxes with Real and Financial Frictions," Working Papers 201402, Middle Tennessee State University, Department of Economics and Finance.
    18. Tobias Lindhe & Jan Södersten, 2009. "Dividend Taxation, Share Repurchases and the Equity Trap," CESifo Working Paper Series 2652, CESifo.
    19. Andrew Benito & Garry Young, 2003. "Hard Times or Great Expectations? Dividend Omissions and Dividend Cuts by UK Firms," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 65(5), pages 531-555, December.
    20. Randall Morck, 2003. "Why Some Double Taxation Might Make Sense: The Special Case of Inter-corporate Dividends," NBER Working Papers 9651, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • H32 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Firm

    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:aea:aecrev:v:94:y:2004:i:2:p:171-175. 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: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    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.