IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v54y2023ics1544612323001435.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Financial market opening and corporate tax avoidance: Evidence from staggered quasi-natural experiments

Author

Listed:
  • Chen, Yunsen
  • Huang, Jianqiao
  • Li, Xiao
  • Ni, Xiaoran

Abstract

This paper examines whether financial market opening, as introduced by the staggered launches of the Stock Connect programs between China's mainland and Hong Kong, affects corporate tax avoidance. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we find that the financial market opening significantly reduces tax avoidance behavior in Chinese A-share listed companies. In addition, we find that the observed effects are more prominent in firms that experience increased foreign institutional ownership following regulatory changes, and in firms with ex-ante weaker external monitoring and stronger external financing needs. These results are consistent with our hypothesis that financial market opening affects corporate tax avoidance through improved governance and reduced external financing costs. We further find that financial market opening decreases capital costs. Overall, our findings indicate that the opening of emerging financial markets to foreign investors is crucial for curtailing opportunistic tax avoidance by local firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Chen, Yunsen & Huang, Jianqiao & Li, Xiao & Ni, Xiaoran, 2023. "Financial market opening and corporate tax avoidance: Evidence from staggered quasi-natural experiments," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:54:y:2023:i:c:s1544612323001435
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2023.103770
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612323001435
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2023.103770?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chen, Shuping & Chen, Xia & Cheng, Qiang & Shevlin, Terry, 2010. "Are family firms more tax aggressive than non-family firms?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(1), pages 41-61, January.
    2. Geert Bekaert & Campbell R. Harvey, 2000. "Foreign Speculators and Emerging Equity Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(2), pages 565-613, April.
    3. Marianne Bertrand & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2003. "Enjoying the Quiet Life? Corporate Governance and Managerial Preferences," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 111(5), pages 1043-1075, October.
    4. Brennan, Michael J & Cao, H Henry, 1997. "International Portfolio Investment Flows," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(5), pages 1851-1880, December.
    5. Bena, Jan & Ferreira, Miguel A & Matos, Pedro & Pires, Pedro, 2017. "Are foreign investors locusts? The long-term effects of foreign institutional ownership," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(1), pages 122-146.
    6. Hongbin Cai & Qiao Liu, 2009. "Competition and Corporate Tax Avoidance: Evidence from Chinese Industrial Firms," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(537), pages 764-795, April.
    7. Huseynov, Fariz & Sardarli, Sabuhi & Zhang, Wei, 2017. "Does index addition affect corporate tax avoidance?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 241-259.
    8. Novia X. Chen & Peng‐Chia Chiu & Terry Shevlin, 2018. "Do Analysts Matter for Corporate Tax Planning? Evidence from a Natural Experiment," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 35(2), pages 794-829, June.
    9. Gul, Ferdinand A. & Kim, Jeong-Bon & Qiu, Annie A., 2010. "Ownership concentration, foreign shareholding, audit quality, and stock price synchronicity: Evidence from China," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(3), pages 425-442, March.
    10. Liu, Clark & Wang, Shujing & Wei, K.C. John, 2021. "Demand shock, speculative beta, and asset prices: Evidence from the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect program," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    11. Peter Blair Henry, 2003. "Capital-Account Liberalization, the Cost of Capital, and Economic Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(2), pages 91-96, May.
    12. Stanley Fischer, 2003. "Globalization and Its Challenges," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(2), pages 1-30, May.
    13. Desai, Mihir A. & Dharmapala, Dhammika, 2006. "Corporate tax avoidance and high-powered incentives," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(1), pages 145-179, January.
    14. Desai, Mihir A. & Dharmapala, Dhammika, 2009. "Earnings Management, Corporate Tax Shelters, and Book–Tax Alignment," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 62(1), pages 169-186, March.
    15. Allen, Arthur & Francis, Bill B. & Wu, Qiang & Zhao, Yijiang, 2016. "Analyst coverage and corporate tax aggressiveness," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 84-98.
    16. Chen, Tao & Lin, Chen, 2017. "Does Information Asymmetry Affect Corporate Tax Aggressiveness?," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(5), pages 2053-2081, October.
    17. Yuming Zhang & Juanjuan Zhang & Zhang Cheng, 2021. "Stock Market Liberalization and Corporate Green Innovation: Evidence from China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-22, March.
    18. Marcin Kacperczyk & Savitar Sundaresan & Tianyu Wang & Wei Jiang, 2021. "Do Foreign Institutional Investors Improve Price Efficiency? [Does governance travel around the world? Evidence from institutional investors]," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(3), pages 1317-1367.
    19. Geert Bekaert & Campbell R. Harvey & Christian Lundblad & Stephan Siegel, 2007. "Global Growth Opportunities and Market Integration," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(3), pages 1081-1137, June.
    20. Frank, Murray Z. & Shen, Tao, 2016. "Investment and the weighted average cost of capital," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(2), pages 300-315.
    21. Bradshaw, Mark & Liao, Guanmin & Ma, Mark (Shuai), 2019. "Agency costs and tax planning when the government is a major Shareholder," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 255-277.
    22. Moshirian, Fariborz & Tian, Xuan & Zhang, Bohui & Zhang, Wenrui, 2021. "Stock market liberalization and innovation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(3), pages 985-1014.
    23. Mauricio Larrain & Sebastian Stumpner, 2017. "Capital Account Liberalization and Aggregate Productivity: The Role of Firm Capital Allocation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(4), pages 1825-1858, August.
    24. Ferreira, Miguel A. & Matos, Pedro, 2008. "The colors of investors' money: The role of institutional investors around the world," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(3), pages 499-533, June.
    25. Kelvin K. F. Law & Lillian F. Mills, 2015. "Taxes and Financial Constraints: Evidence from Linguistic Cues," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(4), pages 777-819, September.
    26. Leuz, Christian & Triantis, Alexander & Yue Wang, Tracy, 2008. "Why do firms go dark? Causes and economic consequences of voluntary SEC deregistrations," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2-3), pages 181-208, August.
    27. Chan, Marc K. & Kwok, Simon, 2017. "Risk-sharing, market imperfections, asset prices: Evidence from China’s stock market liberalization," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 166-187.
    28. Jay C. Hartzell & Laura T. Starks, 2003. "Institutional Investors and Executive Compensation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(6), pages 2351-2374, December.
    29. Todd A. Gormley & Bong Hwan Kim & Xiumin Martin, 2012. "Do Firms Adjust Their Timely Loss Recognition in Response to Changes in the Banking Industry?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 159-196, March.
    30. Oliver Zhen Li & Hang Liu & Chenkai Ni, 2017. "Controlling Shareholders’ Incentive and Corporate Tax Avoidance: A Natural Experiment in China," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(5-6), pages 697-727, May.
    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. Jiang, Hongli & Hu, Wenjie & Jiang, Pengcheng, 2024. "Does ESG performance affect corporate tax avoidance? Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    2. Han, Weihui & Han, Lv & Yang, Qingqing, 2024. "Capital market liberalization and firms’ OFDI performance: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    3. Qin, Yi & Nguyen, Duc Khuong & Cifuentes-Faura, Javier & Zhong, Kaiyang, 2023. "Strong financial regulation and corporate bankruptcy risk in China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PB).
    4. Li, Xiao-Lin & Si, Deng-Kui, 2024. "Does financial market liberalization promote corporate radical innovation? Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(PB).

    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. Luo, Jinbo & Ni, Xiaoran & Tian, Gary Gang, 2020. "Short selling and corporate tax avoidance: Insights from a financial constraint view," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    2. Kovermann, Jost & Velte, Patrick, 2019. "The impact of corporate governance on corporate tax avoidance—A literature review," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 1-1.
    3. Sha, Yezhou & Zhang, Ping & Wang, Yiru & Xu, Yifan, 2022. "Capital market opening and green innovation——Evidence from Shanghai-Hong Kong stock connect and the Shenzhen-Hong Kong stock connect," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    4. Shen, Yuxin & Xu, Hanwen & Yu, Shuangli & Xu, Wei & Shen, Yongjian, 2022. "Air pollution and tax avoidance: New evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 402-420.
    5. Wang, Xun, 2022. "Capital account liberalization, financial dependence and technological innovation: Cross-country evidence," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    6. Guanming He & Helen Mengbing Ren & Richard Taffler, 2020. "The impact of corporate tax avoidance on analyst coverage and forecasts," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 447-477, February.
    7. Liu, Xiaojun & Wang, Li & Dai, Yunhao, 2023. "Capital market liberalization and opportunistic insider sales: Evidence from China," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    8. Zhang, Liguang & Li, Zhuohao & Liao, Yunxiang & Wang, Yunchen & Hu, Ning, 2023. "Foreign investment and information quality – A quasi-experiment from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    9. Feng Huang & Jie Gao, 2022. "Customer and Tax Avoidance: How Does Customer Geographic Proximity Affect a Supplier’s Tax Avoidance?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-30, November.
    10. He Xiao & Jianqun Xi, 2023. "The Impact of Institutional Cross‐ownership on Corporate Tax Avoidance: Evidence from Chinese Listed Firms," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 33(1), pages 86-105, March.
    11. Li, Zhisheng & Liu, Chun & Ni, Xiaoran & Pang, Jiaren, 2024. "Stock market liberalization and corporate investment revisited: Evidence from China," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    12. Guo, Yingwen & Li, Jingjing & Lin, Bingxuan, 2023. "Corporate site visit and tax avoidance: The effects of monitoring and tax knowledge dissemination," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    13. Zhao, Yuyang & Xiang, Cheng & Cai, Wenwu, 2021. "Stock market liberalization and institutional herding: Evidence from the Shanghai-Hong Kong and Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connects," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    14. Zhang, Ping & Sha, Yezhou & Wang, Yu & Wang, Tewei, 2022. "Capital market opening and stock price crash risk – Evidence from the Shanghai-Hong Kong stock connect and the Shenzhen-Hong Kong stock connect," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    15. Chen, Yuyang & Wang, Xinlu & Chen, Kun, 2023. "Stock market liberalization and pay for market-based performance: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    16. Hongying Yin & Xiaoyun Gong & Xiaofeng Quan & Annie Y. S. Li, 2024. "Local gambling preferences and corporate tax avoidance: Evidence from China," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(3), pages 3413-3443, July.
    17. Jianqiao Huang & Yunsen Chen & Xin Dai & Xiaoran Ni, 2022. "Stock market liberalisation and corporate cash holdings: evidence from China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(S1), pages 1925-1955, April.
    18. Yi, Zhaoying & Xu, Xiaowei & Wei, Minghai & Lin, Bingxuan, 2023. "Foreign institutional ownership externalities and supplier innovation," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    19. Jiang, Dequan & Li, Weiping & Shen, Yongjian & Yao, Zhenye, 2020. "Market liberalization and tax avoidance: Evidence from the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect Program in China," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 44(3).
    20. Yunsen Chen & Jianqiao Huang & Xiao Li & Qingbo Yuan, 2022. "Does stock market liberalization improve stock price efficiency? Evidence from China," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(7-8), pages 1175-1210, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Financial market opening; Tax avoidance; Corporate governance; Stock connect;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G18 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • G38 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion and Avoidance

    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:eee:finlet:v:54:y:2023:i:c:s1544612323001435. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    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.