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Dividends, Share Repurchases, and Tax Clienteles: Evidence from the 2003 Reductions in Shareholder Taxes

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  • Jennifer Blouin
  • Jana Raedy
  • Douglas Shackelford

Abstract

This paper jointly evaluates firm-level changes in investor composition and shareholder distributions following a 2003 reduction in the dividend and capital gains tax rates for individuals. We find that directors and officers, but not other individual investors, rebalanced their portfolios to maximize after-tax returns in light of the new tax rules. We also find that firms adjusted their distribution policy (specifically, dividends versus share repurchases) in a manner consistent with the altered tax incentives for individual investors. To our knowledge, this is the first paper to employ simultaneous equations to estimate both investor and managerial responses to the 2003 rate reductions. We find that estimating a system of equations leads to different inferences.

Suggested Citation

  • Jennifer Blouin & Jana Raedy & Douglas Shackelford, 2010. "Dividends, Share Repurchases, and Tax Clienteles: Evidence from the 2003 Reductions in Shareholder Taxes," NBER Working Papers 16129, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16129
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    Cited by:

    1. Alzahrani, Mohammed & Lasfer, Meziane, 2012. "Investor protection, taxation, and dividends," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 745-762.
    2. Stimmelmayr, Michael & Liberini, Federica & Russo, Antonio, 2015. "The Role of Toeholds and Capital Gain Taxes for Corporate Acquisition Strategies," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 112926, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    3. Boulton, Thomas J. & Braga-Alves, Marcus V. & Shastri, Kuldeep, 2012. "Payout policy in Brazil: Dividends versus interest on equity," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 968-979.
    4. Danny Yagan, 2015. "Capital Tax Reform and the Real Economy: The Effects of the 2003 Dividend Tax Cut," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(12), pages 3531-3563, December.
    5. Hanlon, Michelle & Hoopes, Jeffrey L., 2014. "What do firms do when dividend tax rates change? An examination of alternative payout responses," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(1), pages 105-124.
    6. Daeyong Lee, 2017. "Dividend taxation and household dividend portfolio decisions: evidence from the U.S. Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(8), pages 723-737, February.
    7. Chongyang Chen & Zhonglan Dai & Douglas Shackelford & Harold Zhang, 2011. "Does Financial Constraint Affect Shareholder Taxes and the Cost of Equity Capital?," NBER Working Papers 17169, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Marko Koethenbuerger & Michael E Stimmelmayr, 2022. "The Efficiency Costs of Dividend Taxation with Managerial Firms," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(643), pages 1123-1149.
    9. Sanjay Dhamija & Ravinder Kumar Arora, 2019. "Impact of Dividend Tax Change on the Payout Policy of Indian Companies," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 20(5), pages 1282-1291, October.
    10. Adrien Matray & Charles Boissel, 2020. "Higher Dividend Taxes, No Problem! Evidence from Taxing Entrepreneurs in France," Working Papers 276, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Policy Studies..
    11. Michelle Hanlon & Jeffrey L. Hoopes & Joel Slemrod, 2019. "Tax Reform Made Me Do It!," Tax Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 33(1), pages 33-80.
    12. Booth, Laurence & Zhou, Jun, 2017. "Dividend policy: A selective review of results from around the world," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 1-15.
    13. Jacob, Martin & Alstadsæter, Annette, 2013. "Payout policies of privately held firms: Flexibility and the role of income taxes," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 152, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    14. Jesse Edgerton, 2013. "Four facts about dividend payouts and the 2003 tax cut," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 20(5), pages 769-784, October.
    15. Thomas Bauer & Thomas Kourouxous & Peter Krenn, 2018. "Taxation and agency conflicts between firm owners and managers: a review," Business Research, Springer;German Academic Association for Business Research, vol. 11(1), pages 33-76, February.
    16. Laura Kawano, 2014. "The Dividend Clientele Hypothesis: Evidence from the 2003 Tax Act," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 6(1), pages 114-136, February.
    17. Chanchal Chatterjee & Paromita Dutta, 2017. "Price Behaviour Around Dividend Announcements in the Indian Equity Market in the Existence of Corporate Dividend Tax," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 18(2), pages 402-415, April.
    18. Maier, Christoph & Schanz, Deborah, 2017. "Towards neutral distribution taxes and vanishing tax effects in the European Union," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 215, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • G35 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Payout Policy
    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • K34 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Tax Law

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