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Corporate Taxation, Debt Financing and Foreign Plant Ownership

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  • Christian Keuschnigg
  • Peter Egger
  • Wolfgang Eggert
  • Hannes Winner

Abstract

This paper compares domestically and foreign-owned plants with respect to their debt-toassets ratio and analyzes to which extent the difference is systematically affected by corporate taxation. To derive hypotheses about influence of corporate taxation on a firm's debt financing we adapt a standard model of taxation and financing decisions of firms for the case of international debt shifting activities of foreign-owned firms. We estimate the average difference between a foreign-owned and a domestically-owned firm's debt ratio, treating the mode of ownership as endogenous. Using data from 32,067 European firms, we find that foreign-owned firms on average exhibit a significantly higher debt ratio than their domestically-owned counterparts in the host country. Moreover, this gap in the debt ratio increases with the host country's statutory corporate tax rate.

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Keuschnigg & Peter Egger & Wolfgang Eggert & Hannes Winner, 2009. "Corporate Taxation, Debt Financing and Foreign Plant Ownership," University of St. Gallen Department of Economics working paper series 2009 2009-01, Department of Economics, University of St. Gallen.
    • Handle: RePEc:usg:dp2009:2009-01
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Corporate taxation; Multinational firms; Financial structure; Debt shifting; Propensity score matching;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business
    • C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models

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