IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aejpol/v10y2018i2p272-301.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Effect of Corporate Taxation on Investment and Financial Policy: Evidence from the DPAD

Author

Listed:
  • Eric Ohrn

Abstract

This study estimates the investment, financing, and payout responses to variation in a firm's effective corporate income tax rate in the United States. I exploit quasi-experimental variation created by the Domestic Production Activities Deduction, a corporate tax expenditure created in 2005. A 1 percentage point reduction in tax rates increases investment by 4.7 percent of installed capital, increases payouts by 0.3 percent of sales, and decreases debt by 5.3 percent of total assets. These estimates suggest that lower corporate tax rates and faster accelerated depreciation each stimulate a similar increase in investment, per dollar in lost revenue.

Suggested Citation

  • Eric Ohrn, 2018. "The Effect of Corporate Taxation on Investment and Financial Policy: Evidence from the DPAD," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 10(2), pages 272-301, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejpol:v:10:y:2018:i:2:p:272-301
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/pol.20150378
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20150378
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/attachments?retrieve=fre0LqDpFaY_rie8RNDOJuvdgT0KG53S
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/attachments?retrieve=TM55u6uCJsKkbppxIyqpWhNIxQMoz_0D
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/attachments?retrieve=mDrqCFrgLfAO7L3t8LgIjBdzy2CEUpMB
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Auerbach, Alan J, 1983. "Taxation, Corporate Financial Policy and the Cost of Capital," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 21(3), pages 905-940, September.
    2. Eric Zwick & James Mahon, 2017. "Tax Policy and Heterogeneous Investment Behavior," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(1), pages 217-248, January.
    3. David H. Autor, 2003. "Outsourcing at Will: The Contribution of Unjust Dismissal Doctrine to the Growth of Employment Outsourcing," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 21(1), pages 1-42, January.
    4. Edgerton, Jesse, 2010. "Investment incentives and corporate tax asymmetries," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(11-12), pages 936-952, December.
    5. Blouin, Jennifer & Core, John E. & Guay, Wayne, 2010. "Have the tax benefits of debt been overestimated?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(2), pages 195-213, November.
    6. Christopher L. House & Matthew D. Shapiro, 2008. "Temporary Investment Tax Incentives: Theory with Evidence from Bonus Depreciation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(3), pages 737-768, June.
    7. Steven N. Kaplan & Luigi Zingales, 1997. "Do Investment-Cash Flow Sensitivities Provide Useful Measures of Financing Constraints?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(1), pages 169-215.
    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. Hazans, Mihails & Pluta, Anna, 2020. "Tax incentives to encourage corporate investment in Latvia," MPRA Paper 118601, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Zhao, Lexin & Fang, Hongsheng, 2022. "Investment incentives and the relative demand for skilled labor: Evidence from accelerated depreciation policies in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    3. Bilicka, Katarzyna, 2020. "Are financing constraints binding for investment? Evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 618-640.
    4. Eichfelder, Sebastian & Jacob, Martin & Schneider, Kerstin, 2023. "Do tax incentives affect investment quality?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    5. Eichfelder, Sebastian & Knaisch, Jonas & Schneider, Kerstin, 2023. "How does bonus depreciation affect real investment? Effect size, asset structure, and tax planning," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 278, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    6. Eichfelder, Sebastian & Jacob, Martin & Schneider, Kerstin, 2020. "Do tax incentives reduce investment quality?," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 248, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    7. Guceri, Irem & Albinowski, Maciej, 2021. "Investment responses to tax policy under uncertainty," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(3), pages 1147-1170.
    8. Daniel G. Garrett & Eric Ohrn & Juan Carlos Suárez Serrato, 2020. "Tax Policy and Local Labor Market Behavior," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 2(1), pages 83-100, March.
    9. Kaoru Hosono & Masaki Hotei & Daisuke Miyakawa, 2023. "Causal effects of a tax incentive on SME capital investment," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 539-557, August.
    10. Selale Tuzel & Miao Ben Zhang, 2021. "Economic Stimulus at the Expense of Routine‐Task Jobs," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 76(6), pages 3347-3399, December.
    11. Walch, Florian & Dwenger, Nadja, 2011. "Tax Losses and Firm Investment: Evidence from Tax Statistics," VfS Annual Conference 2011 (Frankfurt, Main): The Order of the World Economy - Lessons from the Crisis 48699, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    12. Pham, Anh, 2020. "Effects of temporary corporate income tax cuts: Evidence from Vietnam," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    13. Yu, Jinliang & Qi, Yu, 2022. "BT-to-VAT reform and firm productivity: Evidence from a quasi-experiment in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    14. Boie-Wegener, Matti & Koch, Reinald & Oestreicher, Andreas & Schön, Lena, 2024. "Die fiskalische Wirkung von Steuersatzsenkungen, Abschreibungsvergünstigungen und Investitionsprämien in Krisenzeiten: Eine quantitative Analyse in Bezug auf deutsche Kapitalgesellschaften," ZEW Discussion Papers 24-008, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    15. Lei Zhang & Yuyu Chen & Zongyan He, 2018. "The effect of investment tax incentives: evidence from China’s value-added tax reform," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 25(4), pages 913-945, August.
    16. Giacomo Brusco & Benjamin Glass, 2023. "Risky business: policy uncertainty and investment," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 30(5), pages 1331-1345, October.
    17. KOIZUMI Hideto, 2024. "Cascades of Tax Policy through Production Networks: Evidence from Japan," Discussion papers 24025, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    18. HOSONO Kaoru & HOTEI Masaki & MIYAKAWA Daisuke, 2022. "Causal Effects of a Tax Incentive on SME Capital Investment," Discussion papers 22048, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    19. Hines, James R. & Park, Jongsang, 2019. "Investment ramifications of distortionary tax subsidies," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 36-51.
    20. Daniel Green & Brian T. Melzer & Jonathan A. Parker & Arcenis Rojas, 2020. "Accelerator or Brake? Cash for Clunkers, Household Liquidity, and Aggregate Demand," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 12(4), pages 178-211, November.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • D25 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Intertemporal Firm Choice: Investment, Capacity, and Financing
    • G31 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Capital Budgeting; Fixed Investment and Inventory Studies
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • H32 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Firm

    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:aea:aejpol:v:10:y:2018:i:2:p:272-301. 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: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.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.