IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/bubdps/182012.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Tax incentives and capital structure choice: Evidence from Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Hartmann-Wendels, Thomas
  • Stein, Ingrid
  • Stöter, Alwin

Abstract

This paper provides new evidence that taxes affect capital structure choice, using a unique and comprehensive panel data set which covers 86,173 German non-financial firms over the years 1973-2008. Following the Graham methodology to simulate marginal tax rates, we find a statistically and economically significant positive relationship between the marginal tax benefit of debt (net and gross of investor taxes) and the debt ratio. A 10% increase in the net (gross) marginal tax benefit of debt causes a 1.5% (1.6%) increase in the debt ratio, ceteris paribus. The results are robust to various specifications like using changes in debt or debt to capital ratios. A significantly positive effect of taxes on the debt ratio can also be identified in a partial adjustment model.

Suggested Citation

  • Hartmann-Wendels, Thomas & Stein, Ingrid & Stöter, Alwin, 2012. "Tax incentives and capital structure choice: Evidence from Germany," Discussion Papers 18/2012, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:bubdps:182012
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/64815/1/726774529.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Edward I. Altman, 1968. "The Prediction Of Corporate Bankruptcy: A Discriminant Analysis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 23(1), pages 193-194, March.
    2. White, Halbert, 1980. "A Heteroskedasticity-Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroskedasticity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(4), pages 817-838, May.
    3. Antoniou, Antonios & Guney, Yilmaz & Paudyal, Krishna, 2008. "The Determinants of Capital Structure: Capital Market-Oriented versus Bank-Oriented Institutions," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(1), pages 59-92, March.
    4. JULES H. Van BINSBERGEN & JOHN R. GRAHAM & JIE YANG, 2010. "The Cost of Debt," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(6), pages 2089-2136, December.
    5. Amihud, Yakov & Murgia, Maurizio, 1997. "Dividends, Taxes, and Signaling: Evidence from Germany," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 397-408, March.
    6. Edward I. Altman, 1968. "Financial Ratios, Discriminant Analysis And The Prediction Of Corporate Bankruptcy," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 23(4), pages 589-609, September.
    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. José A. Clemente-Almendros & Francisco Sogorb-Mira, 2016. "The effect of taxes on the debt policy of spanish listed companies," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 7(3), pages 359-391, August.
    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. Paseda, Oluseun & Olowe, Rufus, 2018. "The Debt Maturity Structure of Nigerian Quoted Firms," MPRA Paper 117061, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 30 Jun 2018.

    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. Ali Uyar & Simone Pizzi & Fabio Caputo & Cemil Kuzey & Abdullah S. Karaman, 2022. "Do shareholders reward or punish risky firms due to CSR reporting and assurance?," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(5), pages 1596-1620, July.
    2. Hang Luo & Linfeng Chen, 2019. "Bond yield and credit rating: evidence of Chinese local government financing vehicles," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 52(3), pages 737-758, April.
    3. Barth, Mary E. & Beaver, William H. & Landsman, Wayne R., 1998. "Relative valuation roles of equity book value and net income as a function of financial health," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 1-34, February.
    4. Juan García Lara & Beatriz Osma & Evi Neophytou, 2009. "Earnings quality in ex‐post failed firms," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(2), pages 119-138.
    5. 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.
    6. Ruey S. Tsay & Yi-Mien Lin & Hsiao-Wen Wang, 2009. "Residual income, non-earnings information, and information content," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(6), pages 487-511.
    7. Clemente-Almendros, José A. & Sogorb-Mira, Francisco, 2018. "Costs of debt, tax benefits and a new measure of non-debt tax shields: examining debt conservatism in Spanish listed firms," Revista de Contabilidad - Spanish Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 162-175.
    8. Cronqvist, Henrik & Makhija, Anil K. & Yonker, Scott E., 2012. "Behavioral consistency in corporate finance: CEO personal and corporate leverage," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(1), pages 20-40.
    9. Hao, Yamin & Li, Shuo, 2021. "Does firm visibility matter to debtholders? Evidence from credit ratings," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    10. Azmat, Saad & Skully, Michael & Brown, Kym, 2017. "The (little) difference that makes all the difference between Islamic and conventional bonds," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 46-59.
    11. Yangyang Chen & C. S. Agnes Cheng & Shuo Li & Jingran Zhao, 2021. "The monitoring role of the media: Evidence from earnings management," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(3-4), pages 533-563, March.
    12. Kawsar Jahan & Mohammod Akbar Kabir & Farjana Nur Saima & Md. Nasim Adnan, 2019. "Financial Crises in State Owned and Private Commercial Banks in Bangladesh: A Comparative Analysis," Business and Economic Research, Macrothink Institute, vol. 9(2), pages 146-159, June.
    13. Asghar Zardkoohi & Eugene Kang & Donald Fraser & Albert A. Cannella, 2018. "Managerial Risk-Taking Behavior: A Too-Big-To-Fail Story," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 149(1), pages 221-233, April.
    14. Karpuz, Ahmet & Luo, Di & Xiao, Rongbing & Zhao, Huainan, 2023. "The effect of labour protection laws on the relationship between leverage and wages," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    15. Ahmed, Yousry & Elshandidy, Tamer, 2018. "Why do over-deviated firms from target leverage undertake foreign acquisitions?," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 309-327.
    16. Chen, Fan, 2016. "The wealth effects of dividend announcements on bondholders: New evidence from the over-the-counter market," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 52-75.
    17. Li, Yuanzhi, 2013. "A nonlinear wealth transfer from shareholders to creditors around Chapter 11 filing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(1), pages 183-198.
    18. Yin-Siang Huang & Iftekhar Hasan & Ying-Chen Huang & Chih-Yung Lin, 2021. "Political Uncertainty and Bank Loan Contracts: Does Government Quality Matter?," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 60(2), pages 157-185, December.
    19. Kenneth W. Clements & Patricia Wang, 2003. "Who Cites What?," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 79(245), pages 229-244, June.
    20. Wanyi Chen & Ning Hu & Xiangfang Zhao, 2022. "Information asymmetry, regulatory inquiry, and company mergers and acquisitions: evidence from Shenzhen Stock Exchange comment letters," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(2), pages 2497-2542, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    debt; capital structure; marginal tax rate; corporate taxes; personal taxes;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:zbw:bubdps:182012. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dbbgvde.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.