IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/manchs/v76y2008is1p85-115.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Taxes And Capital Structure: A Study Of European Companies

Author

Listed:
  • YUE CHENG
  • CHRISTOPHER J. GREEN

Abstract

We analyse the impact of tax policy on firms' leverage ratios in a balanced panel of 129 medium‐sized listed European companies from 1993 to 2005. A general model of company leverage is applied within which King's tax ratios are used to capture tax policy changes, controlling for non‐tax influences. Leverage measures studied include total, long‐term and short‐term debt. A generalized method of moments estimator is used to control for endogeneity. The results suggest that tax policy has a significant but small impact on firms' debt ratios and that non‐debt tax shields are a substitute for debt in company activities.

Suggested Citation

  • Yue Cheng & Christopher J. Green, 2008. "Taxes And Capital Structure: A Study Of European Companies," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 76(s1), pages 85-115, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:manchs:v:76:y:2008:i:s1:p:85-115
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9957.2008.01082.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9957.2008.01082.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1467-9957.2008.01082.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chittenden, Francis & Hall, Graham & Hutchinson, Patrick, 1996. "Small Firm Growth, Access to Capital Markets and Financial Structure: Review of Issues and an Empirical Investigation," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 59-67, February.
    2. MacKie-Mason, Jeffrey K, 1990. "Do Taxes Affect Corporate Financing Decisions?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(5), pages 1471-1493, December.
    3. Stewart C. Myers & Nicholas S. Majluf, 1984. "Corporate Financing and Investment Decisions When Firms Have InformationThat Investors Do Not Have," NBER Working Papers 1396, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Haufler, Andreas & Schjelderup, Guttorm, 2000. "Corporate Tax Systems and Cross Country Profit Shifting," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 52(2), pages 306-325, April.
    5. Myers, Stewart C. & Majluf, Nicholas S., 1984. "Corporate financing and investment decisions when firms have information that investors do not have," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 187-221, June.
    6. Givoly, Dan, et al, 1992. "Taxes and Capital Structure: Evidence from Firms' Response to the Tax Reform Act of 1986," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 5(2), pages 331-355.
    7. Downs, Thomas W, 1993. "Corporate Leverage and Nondebt Tax Shields: Evidence on Crowding-Out," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 28(4), pages 549-583, November.
    8. Hausman, Jerry A & Taylor, William E, 1981. "Panel Data and Unobservable Individual Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(6), pages 1377-1398, November.
    9. Graham C. Hall & Patrick J. Hutchinson & Nicos Michaelas, 2004. "Determinants of the Capital Structures of European SMEs," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5‐6), pages 711-728, June.
    10. Brennan, Michael J & Schwartz, Edwardo S, 1978. "Corporate Income Taxes, Valuation, and the Problem of Optimal Capital Structure," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 51(1), pages 103-114, January.
    11. Plesko, George A., 2003. "An evaluation of alternative measures of corporate tax rates," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 201-226, June.
    12. Gordon, Roger H. & Lee, Young, 2001. "Do taxes affect corporate debt policy? Evidence from U.S. corporate tax return data," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 195-224, November.
    13. T. S. Breusch & A. R. Pagan, 1980. "The Lagrange Multiplier Test and its Applications to Model Specification in Econometrics," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 47(1), pages 239-253.
    14. repec:bla:jfinan:v:53:y:1998:i:1:p:131-162 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Hausman, Jerry, 2015. "Specification tests in econometrics," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 38(2), pages 112-134.
    16. Sharpe, Steven A. & Nguyen, Hien H., 1995. "Capital market imperfections and the incentive to lease," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2-3), pages 271-294.
    17. Sanford J. Grossman & Oliver D. Hart, 1982. "Corporate Financial Structure and Managerial Incentives," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of Information and Uncertainty, pages 107-140, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Jensen, Michael C, 1986. "Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow, Corporate Finance, and Takeovers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 323-329, May.
    19. Stephen A. Ross, 1977. "The Determination of Financial Structure: The Incentive-Signalling Approach," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 8(1), pages 23-40, Spring.
    20. Owusu-Gyapong, Anthony, 1986. "Alternative Estimating Techniques for Panel Data on Strike Activity," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 68(3), pages 526-531, August.
    21. Rajan, Raghuram G & Zingales, Luigi, 1995. "What Do We Know about Capital Structure? Some Evidence from International Data," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(5), pages 1421-1460, December.
    22. Trezevant, Robert, 1992. "Debt Financing and Tax Status: Tests of the Substitution Effect and the Tax Exhaustion Hypothesis Using Firms' Responses to the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(4), pages 1557-1568, September.
    23. Baltagi, Badi H. & Chang, Young-Jae & Li, Qi, 1992. "Monte Carlo results on several new and existing tests for the error component model," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 54(1-3), pages 95-120.
    24. Graham, John R. & Tucker, Alan L., 2006. "Tax shelters and corporate debt policy," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(3), pages 563-594, September.
    25. Mikkelson, Wayne H. & Partch, M. Megan, 1986. "Valuation effects of security offerings and the issuance process," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1-2), pages 31-60.
    26. Kim, E Han, 1978. "A Mean-Variance Theory of Optimal Capital Structure and Corporate Debt Capacity," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 33(1), pages 45-63, March.
    27. Michaelas, Nicos & Chittenden, Francis & Poutziouris, Panikkos, 1999. "Financial Policy and Capital Structure Choice in U.K. SMEs: Empirical Evidence from Company Panel Data," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 113-130, March.
    28. Christopher J. Green & Colin Kirkpatrick & Victor Murinde (ed.), 2005. "Finance and Development," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2764.
    29. Sanjiva Prasad & Christopher J. Green & Victor Murinde, 2005. "Company Financial Structure: A Survey and Implications for Developing Economies," Chapters, in: Christopher J. Green & Colin Kirkpatrick & Victor Murinde (ed.), Finance and Development, chapter 12, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    30. Graham C. Hall & Patrick J. Hutchinson & Nicos Michaelas, 2004. "Determinants of the Capital Structures of European SMEs," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5-6), pages 711-728.
    31. Myers, Stewart C., 1977. "Determinants of corporate borrowing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 147-175, November.
    32. Miller, Merton H & Rock, Kevin, 1985. "Dividend Policy under Asymmetric Information," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(4), pages 1031-1051, September.
    33. repec:bla:jfinan:v:43:y:1988:i:1:p:1-19 is not listed on IDEAS
    34. DeAngelo, Harry & Masulis, Ronald W., 1980. "Optimal capital structure under corporate and personal taxation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 3-29, March.
    35. van der Wijst, Nico & Thurik, Roy, 1993. "Determinants of Small Firm Debt Ratios: An Analysis of Retail Panel Data," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 55-65, March.
    36. Harris, Milton & Raviv, Artur, 1991. "The Theory of Capital Structure," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(1), pages 297-355, March.
    37. Mervyn A. King, 1974. "Taxation and the Cost of Capital," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 41(1), pages 21-35.
    38. Hirota, Shinichi, 1999. "Are Corporate Financing Decisions Different in Japan? An Empirical Study on Capital Structure," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 201-229, September.
    39. Graham, John R., 1999. "Do personal taxes affect corporate financing decisions?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(2), pages 147-185, August.
    40. John R. Graham, 2000. "How Big Are the Tax Benefits of Debt?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(5), pages 1901-1941, October.
    41. Kraus, Alan & Litzenberger, Robert H, 1973. "A State-Preference Model of Optimal Financial Leverage," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 28(4), pages 911-922, September.
    42. Alan Bevan & Jo Danbolt, 2002. "Capital structure and its determinants in the UK - a decompositional analysis," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(3), pages 159-170.
    43. Miller, Merton H, 1977. "Debt and Taxes," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 32(2), pages 261-275, May.
    44. Carl Chiarella & Toan Pham & Ah Boon Sim & Madeleine Tan, 1991. "Determinants of Corporate Capital Structure: Australian Evidence," Working Paper Series 3, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney.
    45. Harris, Milton & Raviv, Artur, 1990. "Capital Structure and the Informational Role of Debt," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(2), pages 321-349, June.
    46. Deen Kemsley & Doron Nissim, 2002. "Valuation of the Debt Tax Shield," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(5), pages 2045-2073, October.
    47. Song, Han-Suck, 2005. "Capital Structure Determinants An Empirical Study of Swedish Companies," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 25, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    48. Colin Mayer, 1986. "Corporation Tax, Finance and the Cost of Capital," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 53(1), pages 93-112.
    49. Keen, Michael & Shiantarelli, Fabio, 1991. "Corporation Tax Asymmetries and Optimal Financial Policy," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 43(2), pages 280-291, April.
    50. Ulbricht, Niels & Weiner, Christian, 2005. "Worldscope meets Compustat: A comparison of financial databases," SFB 649 Discussion Papers 2005-064, Humboldt University Berlin, Collaborative Research Center 649: Economic Risk.
    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. 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.
    2. ShiXue He & Marcel Ausloos, 2017. "Impact of the Global Crisis on SME Internal vs. External Financing in China," Papers 1707.06635, arXiv.org.
    3. David Miles & Jing Yang & Gilberto Marcheggiano, 2013. "Optimal Bank Capital," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 123(567), pages 1-37, March.
    4. Joshua R. Hendrickson, 2014. "Contingent Liability, Capital Requirements, and Financial Reform," Cato Journal, Cato Journal, Cato Institute, vol. 34(1), pages 129-144, Winter.
    5. Michael Overesch & Dennis Voeller, 2010. "The Impact of Personal and Corporate Taxation on Capital Structure Choices," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 66(3), pages 263-294, September.
    6. Petr Pavlík, 2017. "Financial theory approach to the investigation of the impact of Basel III capital adequacy on commercial banks [Vědecké metody zkoumání dopadu kapitálové regulace obchodních bank]," Český finanční a účetní časopis, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2017(4), pages 41-56.
    7. repec:aer:wpaper:329 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Silke Rünger & Rainer Niemann & Magdalena Haring, 2019. "Investor taxation, firm heterogeneity and capital structure choice," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 26(4), pages 719-757, August.
    9. Mai, Nhat Chi, 2012. "Market timing, taxes and capital structure: evidence from Vietnam," OSF Preprints t3mvs, Center for Open Science.

    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. Mai, Nhat Chi, 2012. "Market timing, taxes and capital structure: evidence from Vietnam," OSF Preprints t3mvs, Center for Open Science.
    2. Sanjiva Prasad & Christopher J. Green & Victor Murinde, 2005. "Company Financial Structure: A Survey and Implications for Developing Economies," Chapters, in: Christopher J. Green & Colin Kirkpatrick & Victor Murinde (ed.), Finance and Development, chapter 12, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Sanjiva Prasad & Christopher J. Green & Victor Murinde, 2001. "Company Financing, Captial Structure, and Ownership: A Survey, and Implications for Developing Economies," SUERF Studies, SUERF - The European Money and Finance Forum, number 12 edited by Morten Balling, May.
    4. Michael Overesch & Dennis Voeller, 2010. "The Impact of Personal and Corporate Taxation on Capital Structure Choices," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 66(3), pages 263-294, September.
    5. Rana El Bahsh & Ali Alattar & Aziz N. Yusuf, 2018. "Firm, Industry and Country Level Determinants of Capital Structure: Evidence from Jordan," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 8(2), pages 175-190.
    6. 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.
    7. Apostolos Dasilas & Nicolas Papasyriopoulos, 2015. "Corporate governance, credit ratings and the capital structure of Greek SME and large listed firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 215-244, June.
    8. María Palacín-Sánchez & Luis Ramírez-Herrera & Filippo di Pietro, 2013. "Capital structure of SMEs in Spanish regions," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 41(2), pages 503-519, August.
    9. Schauten, M.B.J. & Spronk, J., 2006. "Optimal Capital Structure: Reflections on Economic and Other Values," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2006-074-F&A, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    10. Yarong Chen & Luca Sensini & Maria Vazquez, 2021. "Determinants of Leverage in Emerging Markets: Empirical Evidence," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 11(2), pages 40-46.
    11. Huang, Guihai & Song, Frank M., 2006. "The determinants of capital structure: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 14-36.
    12. Nikolaos Daskalakis & Eleni Tsota, 2023. "Reintroducing Industry Effects in Capital Structure Determination of SMEs," Business & Entrepreneurship Journal, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 12(2), pages 1-4.
    13. Joaquim J.S. Ramalho & Jacinto Vidigal da Silva, 2009. "A two-part fractional regression model for the financial leverage decisions of micro, small, medium and large firms," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(5), pages 621-636.
    14. Rizov, Marian, 2008. "Corporate capital structure and how soft budget constraints may affect it," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 22(4), pages 648-684.
    15. Joliet, Robert & Muller, Aline, 2013. "Capital structure effects of international expansion," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 23(5), pages 375-393.
    16. Magdalena Haring & Rainer Niemann & Silke Rünger, 2016. "Investor Taxation, Firm Heterogeneity and Capital Structure Choice," CESifo Working Paper Series 6098, CESifo.
    17. Georgeta Vintilă & Ştefan Cristian Gherghina & Diana Alexandra Toader, 2019. "Exploring the Determinants of Financial Structure in the Technology Industry: Panel Data Evidence from the New York Stock Exchange Listed Companies," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-16, October.
    18. Alves, Paulo F. Pereira & Ferreira, Miguel A., 2011. "Capital structure and law around the world," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 119-150, July.
    19. Stanislas T. M. D. C. Agossadou, 2024. "Corporate Income Tax (CIT) and Capital [L'impôt sur les sociétés (IS) et le capital]," Post-Print hal-04509016, HAL.
    20. José López-Gracia & Francisco Sogorb-Mira, 2008. "Testing trade-off and pecking order theories financing SMEs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 31(2), pages 117-136, August.

    More about this item

    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:bla:manchs:v:76:y:2008:i:s1:p:85-115. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/semanuk.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.