IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/nhhfms/2018_019.html

Stairway to (Secrecy) Heaven: Market Attitudes towards Secrecy Shopping

Author

Listed:
  • Gavrilova, Evelina

    (Dept. of Business and Management Science, Norwegian School of Economics)

  • Polakova, Aija

    (Dept. of Business and Management Science, Norwegian School of Economics)

Abstract

We study asset price reactions to news on firms' decisions to acquire affiliates located in known secrecy havens. Our sample consists of data on the S&P 500 companies in the period 2007 to 2014. We find that acquisitions of secrecy havens are associated with a negative market reaction, particularly for firms with an existing network of secrecy haven affiliates. The market reaction to acquisitions of secrecy havens is particularly negative during the financial crisis years, since additional secrecy was likely undesirable during times of economic distress. The negative reaction is particularly strong in the retail sector, where reputational concerns should matter most. Investors react less negatively to secrecy haven acquisitions if the parent firm is well-governed and if the secrecy haven is located in a country with higher standard of living. Investors also react less negatively to acquisitions of secrecy havens with a low corporate tax rate, which indicates that they consider the potential future tax savings as positive news. Investors react positively to enforcement of tax information exchange agreements, which increase the transparency of the corporate structure to domestic authorities and investors without impacting the tax bill. The findings suggest that investors are concerned about firms' secrecy; however, potential future tax planning opportunities mitigate these concerns.

Suggested Citation

  • Gavrilova, Evelina & Polakova, Aija, 2018. "Stairway to (Secrecy) Heaven: Market Attitudes towards Secrecy Shopping," Discussion Papers 2018/19, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Business and Management Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:nhhfms:2018_019
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2578161
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Braun, Julia & Weichenrieder, Alfons, 2015. "Does Exchange of Information Between Tax Authorities Influence Multinationals' Use of Tax Havens?," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 113121, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    2. Guttorm Schjelderup, 2016. "Secrecy jurisdictions," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 23(1), pages 168-189, February.
    3. James O’Donovan & Hannes F Wagner & Stefan Zeume, 2019. "The Value of Offshore Secrets: Evidence from the Panama Papers," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(11), pages 4117-4155.
    4. Desai, Mihir A. & Dyck, Alexander & Zingales, Luigi, 2007. "Theft and taxes," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(3), pages 591-623, June.
    5. 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.
    6. Kim, Jeong-Bon & Li, Yinghua & Zhang, Liandong, 2011. "Corporate tax avoidance and stock price crash risk: Firm-level analysis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(3), pages 639-662, June.
    7. Scott D. Dyreng & Jeffrey L. Hoopes & Jaron H. Wilde, 2016. "Public Pressure and Corporate Tax Behavior," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 54(1), pages 147-186, March.
    8. François-Xavier Delaloye & Michel Habib & Alexandre Ziegler, 2012. "Swiss banking secrecy: the stock market evidence," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 26(1), pages 143-176, March.
    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. Müller, Raphael & Spengel, Christoph & Vay, Heiko, 2020. "On the determinants and effects of corporate tax transparency: Review of an emerging literature," ZEW Discussion Papers 20-063, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    2. 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.
    3. Aija Rusina, 2020. "Name and shame? Evidence from the European Union tax haven blacklist," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 27(6), pages 1364-1424, December.
    4. Polakova, Aija, 2018. "Name and shame? Evidence from the European Union tax haven blacklist," Discussion Papers 2018/18, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Business and Management Science.
    5. Verena K. Dutt & Christopher A. Ludwig & Katharina Nicolay & Heiko Vay & Johannes Voget, 2019. "Increasing tax transparency: investor reactions to the country-by-country reporting requirement for EU financial institutions," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 26(6), pages 1259-1290, December.
    6. Brooks, Chris & Godfrey, Chris & Hillenbrand, Carola & Money, Kevin, 2016. "Do investors care about corporate taxes?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 218-248.
    7. Choy, Siu Kai & Lai, Tat-Kei & Ng, Travis, 2017. "Do tax havens create firm value?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 198-220.
    8. Ariadna Dumitrescu & Jordi Caballé, 2016. "Disclosure of Corporate Tax Reports, Tax Enforcement, and Insider Trading," Working Papers 911, Barcelona School of Economics.
    9. Blaufus, Kay & Möhlmann, Axel & Schwäbe, Alexander N., 2019. "Stock price reactions to news about corporate tax avoidance and evasion," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 278-292.
    10. Blaufus, Kay & Möhlmann, Axel & Schwäbe, Alexander, 2016. "Corporate tax minimization and stock price reactions," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 204, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    11. Leon Zolotoy & Don O’Sullivan & Geoffrey P. Martin & Robert M. Wiseman, 2021. "Stakeholder Agency Relationships: CEO Stock Options and Corporate Tax Avoidance," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(3), pages 782-814, May.
    12. Richard Collier & Seppo Kari & Olli Ropponen & Martin Simmler & Maximilian Todtenhaup, 2018. "Dissecting the EU’s Recent Anti-Tax Avoidance Measures: Merits and Problems," EconPol Policy Reports 8, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    13. Cortes, Felipe & Gomes, Armando & Gopalan, Radhakrishnan, 2021. "Corporate Inversions and Governance," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    14. Gul, Ferdinand A. & Khedmati, Mehdi & Shams, Syed M.M., 2020. "Managerial acquisitiveness and corporate tax avoidance," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    15. Hope, Ole-Kristian & Ma, Mark (Shuai) & Thomas, Wayne B., 2013. "Tax avoidance and geographic earnings disclosure," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 170-189.
    16. My Nguyen & Justin Hung Nguyen, 2020. "Economic policy uncertainty and firm tax avoidance," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(4), pages 3935-3978, December.
    17. Bilicka, Katarzyna & Clancey-Shang, Danjue & Qi, Yaxuan, 2022. "Tax avoidance regulations and stock market responses," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    18. Lei, Guangyong & Qiu, Baoyin & Yu, Junli & Zuo, Jingjing, 2023. ""Hitting the jackpot" in corporate tax strategy: A perspective on gambling preferences," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    19. Durnev, Art & Li, TieMei & Magnan, Michel, 2016. "Are offshore firms worth more?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 131-156.
    20. Richardson, Grant & Taylor, Grantley & Obaydin, Ivan, 2020. "Does the use of tax haven subsidiaries by U.S. multinational corporations affect the cost of bank loans?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion and Avoidance

    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:hhs:nhhfms:2018_019. 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: Stein Fossen (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dfnhhno.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.