IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ecinqu/v58y2020i2p1023-1044.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Banks, Debt And Risk: Assessing The Spillovers Of Corporate Taxes

Author

Listed:
  • Serena Fatica
  • Wouter Heynderickx
  • Andrea Pagano

Abstract

We find evidence of tax‐driven strategic allocation of debt and asset risk across group entities of European banks. We evaluate the effects that establishing tax neutrality between debt and equity finance has on systemic risk, and show that the degree of coordination in implementing the hypothetical tax reform matters. In particular, a coordinated elimination of the tax advantage of debt would significantly reduce systemic losses in the event of a severe banking crisis. By contrast, uncoordinated tax reforms are not equally beneficial precisely because national tax policies generate spillovers through cross‐border bank activities. (JEL G21, G28, H25)

Suggested Citation

  • Serena Fatica & Wouter Heynderickx & Andrea Pagano, 2020. "Banks, Debt And Risk: Assessing The Spillovers Of Corporate Taxes," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 58(2), pages 1023-1044, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:ecinqu:v:58:y:2020:i:2:p:1023-1044
    DOI: 10.1111/ecin.12827
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ecin.12827
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ecin.12827?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
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hebous, Shafik & Ruf, Martin, 2017. "Evaluating the effects of ACE systems on multinational debt financing and investment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 131-149.
    2. Thomas Hemmelgarn & Daniel Teichmann, 2014. "Tax reforms and the capital structure of banks," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 21(4), pages 645-693, August.
    3. Mariathasan, Mike & Merrouche, Ouarda, 2014. "The manipulation of basel risk-weights," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 300-321.
    4. Koehn, Michael & Santomero, Anthony M, 1980. "Regulation of Bank Capital and Portfolio Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 35(5), pages 1235-1244, December.
    5. Ruud A. De Mooij & Michael Keen, 2016. "Debt, Taxes, and Banks," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 48(1), pages 5-33, February.
    6. Reint Gropp & Florian Heider, 2010. "The Determinants of Bank Capital Structure," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 14(4), pages 587-622.
    7. Buettner, Thiess & Wamser, Georg, 2013. "Internal Debt and Multinational Profit Shifting: Empirical Evidence From Firm-Level Panel Data," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 66(1), pages 63-95, March.
    8. Peter Egger & Christian Keuschnigg & Valeria Merlo & Georg Wamser, 2014. "Corporate Taxes and Internal Borrowing within Multinational Firms," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 6(2), pages 54-93, May.
    9. A. Colin Cameron & Douglas L. Miller, 2015. "A Practitioner’s Guide to Cluster-Robust Inference," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(2), pages 317-372.
    10. Cerutti, Eugenio & Dell'Ariccia, Giovanni & Martinez Peria, Maria Soledad, 2007. "How banks go abroad: Branches or subsidiaries?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 1669-1692, June.
    11. Serena Fatica & Thomas Hemmelgarn & Gaëtan Nicodème, 2013. "The Debt-Equity Tax Bias: Consequences and Solutions," Reflets et perspectives de la vie économique, De Boeck Université, vol. 0(1), pages 5-18.
    12. Jost H. Heckemeyer & Ruud A. de Mooij, 2017. "Taxation and Corporate Debt: Are Banks Any Different?," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 70(1), pages 53-76, March.
    13. Thorsten Beck & Radomir Todorov & Wolf Wagner, 2013. "Supervising cross-border banks: theory, evidence and policy [Is the international convergence of capital adequacy regulation desirable?]," Economic Policy, CEPR;CES;MSH, vol. 28(73), pages 5-44.
    14. Merton, Robert C, 1974. "On the Pricing of Corporate Debt: The Risk Structure of Interest Rates," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 29(2), pages 449-470, May.
    15. Lans Bovenberg & Sijbren Cnossen & Ruud de Mooij, 2003. "Introduction: Tax Coordination in the European Union," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 10(6), pages 619-624, November.
    16. Kim, Daesik & Santomero, Anthony M, 1988. " Risk in Banking and Capital Regulation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 43(5), pages 1219-1233, December.
    17. Grace Gu & Ruud Mooij & Tigran Poghosyan, 2015. "Taxation and leverage in international banking," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 22(2), pages 177-200, April.
    18. Matthias Dischinger & Bodo Knoll & Nadine Riedel, 2014. "There's No Place Like Home: The Profitability Gap between Headquarters and their Foreign Subsidiaries," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(2), pages 369-395, June.
    19. Feyen, Erik & del Mazo, Ines Gonzalez, 2013. "European bank deleveraging and global credit conditions : implications of a multi-year process on long-term finance and beyond," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6388, The World Bank.
    20. MacKie-Mason, Jeffrey K, 1990. "Do Taxes Affect Corporate Financing Decisions?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(5), pages 1471-1493, December.
    21. Heider, Florian & Ljungqvist, Alexander, 2015. "As certain as debt and taxes: Estimating the tax sensitivity of leverage from state tax changes," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(3), pages 684-712.
    22. Aghion, Philippe & Bolton, Patrick, 1989. "The financial structure of the firm and the problem of control," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(2-3), pages 286-293, March.
    23. Benczur, Peter & Cannas, Giuseppina & Cariboni, Jessica & Di Girolamo, Francesca & Maccaferri, Sara & Petracco Giudici, Marco, 2017. "Evaluating the effectiveness of the new EU bank regulatory framework: A farewell to bail-out?," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 207-223.
    24. Papke, Leslie E. & Wooldridge, Jeffrey M., 2008. "Panel data methods for fractional response variables with an application to test pass rates," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 145(1-2), pages 121-133, July.
    25. Mitchell A. Petersen, 2009. "Estimating Standard Errors in Finance Panel Data Sets: Comparing Approaches," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 435-480, January.
    26. repec:oup:ecpoli:v:28:y:2013:i:73:p:5-44 is not listed on IDEAS
    27. European Commission, 2015. "Tax reforms in EU Member States - 2015 Report," Taxation Papers 58, Directorate General Taxation and Customs Union, European Commission.
    28. Rajan, Raghuram G & Zingales, Luigi, 1995. "What Do We Know about Capital Structure? Some Evidence from International Data," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(5), pages 1421-1460, December.
    29. Horvath, B.L., 2013. "The impact of Taxation on Bank Leverage and Asset Risk," Other publications TiSEM 3e591f31-4fbc-460b-a5ed-e, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    30. Nicodème, Gaëtan & Langedijk, Sven & Rossi, Alessandro & Pagano, Andrea, 2015. "Debt Bias in Corporate Income Taxation and the Costs of Banking Crises," CEPR Discussion Papers 10616, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    31. De Mooij, Ruud & Hebous, Shafik, 2018. "Curbing corporate debt bias: Do limitations to interest deductibility work?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 368-378.
    32. Riccardo Lisa & Stefano Zedda & Francesco Vallascas & Francesca Campolongo & Massimo Marchesi, 2011. "Modelling Deposit Insurance Scheme Losses in a Basel 2 Framework," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 40(3), pages 123-141, December.
    33. Merz, Julia & Overesch, Michael, 2016. "Profit shifting and tax response of multinational banks," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 57-68.
    34. Titman, Sheridan & Wessels, Roberto, 1988. " The Determinants of Capital Structure Choice," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 43(1), pages 1-19, March.
    35. Schepens, Glenn, 2016. "Taxes and bank capital structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(3), pages 585-600.
    36. DeAngelo, Harry & Masulis, Ronald W., 1980. "Optimal capital structure under corporate and personal taxation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 3-29, March.
    37. Mihir A. Desai & C. Fritz Foley & James R. Hines, 2004. "A Multinational Perspective on Capital Structure Choice and Internal Capital Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 59(6), pages 2451-2487, December.
    38. Orgler, Yair E & Taggart, Robert A, Jr, 1983. "Implications of Corporate Capital Structure Theory for Banking Institutions: A Note," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 15(2), pages 212-221, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Fatica, Serena & Gregori, Wildmer Daniel, 2020. "How much profit shifting do European banks do?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 536-551.
    2. Bellucci, Andrea & Fatica, Serena & Heynderickx, Wouter & Kvedaras, Virmantas & Pagano, Andrea, 2023. "Liability taxes, risk, and the cost of banking crises," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).

    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. Bellucci, Andrea & Fatica, Serena & Heynderickx, Wouter & Kvedaras, Virmantas & Pagano, Andrea, 2023. "Liability taxes, risk, and the cost of banking crises," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    2. Thomas Hemmelgarn & Daniel Teichmann, 2014. "Tax reforms and the capital structure of banks," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 21(4), pages 645-693, August.
    3. Grace Gu & Ruud Mooij & Tigran Poghosyan, 2015. "Taxation and leverage in international banking," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 22(2), pages 177-200, April.
    4. Horváth, Bálint L., 2020. "The interaction of bank regulation and taxation," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    5. Cao, Yifei & Whyte, Kemar, 2022. "Corporate Tax Shields and Capital Structure: Levelling the Playing Field in Debt vs Equity Finance," National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) Discussion Papers 542, National Institute of Economic and Social Research.
    6. Jarle Møen & Dirk Schindler & Guttorm Schjelderup & Julia Tropina Bakke, 2019. "International Debt Shifting: The Value-Maximizing Mix of Internal and External Debt," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(3), pages 431-465, September.
    7. Bremus, Franziska & Schmidt, Kirsten & Tonzer, Lena, 2020. "Interactions between bank levies and corporate taxes: How is bank leverage affected?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 118.
    8. Jose Martin‐Flores & Christophe Moussu, 2019. "Is bank capital sensitive to a tax allowance on marginal equity?," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 25(2), pages 325-357, March.
    9. Franz Reiter & Dominika Langenmayr & Svea Holtmann, 2021. "Avoiding taxes: banks’ use of internal debt," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 28(3), pages 717-745, June.
    10. Horvath, B.L., 2013. "The impact of Taxation on Bank Leverage and Asset Risk," Other publications TiSEM 3e591f31-4fbc-460b-a5ed-e, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    11. Franziska Bremus & Kirsten Schmidt & Lena Tonzer, 2018. "Interactions between Regulatory and Corporate Taxes: How Is Bank Leverage Affected?," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1757, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    12. Goldbach, Stefan & Møen, Jarle & Schindler, Dirk & Schjelderup, Guttorm & Wamser, Georg, 2021. "The tax-efficient use of debt in multinational corporations," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    13. Sobiech, Anna L. & Chronopoulos, Dimitris K. & Wilson, John O.S., 2021. "The real effects of bank taxation: Evidence for corporate financing and investment," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    14. Dominika Langenmayr & Franz Reiter, 2022. "Trading offshore: evidence on banks’ tax avoidance," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 124(3), pages 797-837, July.
    15. Jarle Møen & Dirk Schindler & Guttorm Schjelderup & Julia Tropina, 2011. "International Debt Shifting: Do Multinationals Shift Internal or External Debt?," Working Paper Series of the Department of Economics, University of Konstanz 2011-40, Department of Economics, University of Konstanz.
    16. Egger, Peter & Keuschnigg, Christian & Merlo, Valeria & Wamser, Georg, 2011. "Corporate Taxes, Internal Borrowing, and the Lending Capacity within Multinational Firms," Economics Working Paper Series 1142, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science.
    17. Kogler, Michael, 2019. "Profit Taxation and Bank Risk Taking," Economics Working Paper Series 1918, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science.
    18. Feld, Lars P. & Heckemeyer, Jost H. & Overesch, Michael, 2013. "Capital structure choice and company taxation: A meta-study," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 2850-2866.
    19. Joliet, Robert & Muller, Aline, 2013. "Capital structure effects of international expansion," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 23(5), pages 375-393.
    20. Schandlbauer, Alexander, 2017. "How do financial institutions react to a tax increase?," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 86-106.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • F41 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - Open Economy Macroeconomics
    • F44 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - International Business Cycles
    • F45 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - Macroeconomic Issues of Monetary Unions

    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:bla:ecinqu:v:58:y:2020:i:2:p:1023-1044. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/weaaaea.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.