IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/imf/imfwpa/2016-217.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Financial Sector Debt Bias

Author

Listed:
  • Ms. Oana Luca
  • Alexander F. Tieman

Abstract

Most tax systems create a tax bias toward debt finance. Such debt bias increases leverage and may negatively affect financial stability. This paper models and estimates debt bias in the financial sector, and present novel estimates for investment banks and non-bank financial intermediaries such as finance and insurance companies. We find debt bias to be pervasive, explaining as much as 10 percent of total leverage for regular banks and 20 percent for investment banks, with the effects most pronounced before the global financial crisis. Going forward, debt bias is likely to once again gain prominence as a key driver of leverage decisions, underscoring the importance of policy reform at this juncture.

Suggested Citation

  • Ms. Oana Luca & Alexander F. Tieman, 2016. "Financial Sector Debt Bias," IMF Working Papers 2016/217, International Monetary Fund.
    • Handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2016/217
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=44390
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nadja Dwenger & Viktor Steiner, 2014. "Financial leverage and corporate taxation: evidence from German corporate tax return data," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 21(1), pages 1-28, February.
    2. Christian Thimann, 2014. "How Insurers Differ from Banks: A Primer on Systemic Regulation," Working Papers halshs-01074933, HAL.
    3. 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.
    4. repec:bla:jfinan:v:53:y:1998:i:1:p:131-162 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Douglas W. Diamond & Raghuram G. Rajan, 2000. "A Theory of Bank Capital," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(6), pages 2431-2465, December.
    6. Anonymous, 1958. "International Monetary Fund," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(3), pages 387-387, July.
    7. Ruud A. De Mooij & Michael Keen, 2016. "Debt, Taxes, and Banks," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 48(1), pages 5-33, February.
    8. Sven Langedijk & Gaëtan Nicodème & Andrea Pagano & Alessandro Rossi, 2014. "Debt Bias in Corporate Taxation and the Costs of Banking Crises in the EU," Taxation Papers 50, Directorate General Taxation and Customs Union, European Commission.
    9. Barth, James R. & Caprio,Gerard & Levine, Ross, 2001. "The regulation and supervision of banks around the world - a new database," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2588, The World Bank.
    10. Graham, John R., 2006. "A Review of Taxes and Corporate Finance," Foundations and Trends(R) in Finance, now publishers, vol. 1(7), pages 573-691, September.
    11. Ruud A. de Mooij, 2011. "The Tax Elasticity of Corporate Debt: A Synthesis of Size and Variations," IMF Working Papers 2011/095, International Monetary Fund.
    12. Fred Ramb & Alfons J. Weichenrieder, 2005. "Taxes and the Financial Structure of German Inward FDI," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 141(4), pages 670-692, December.
    13. 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.
    14. Alfons J. Weichenrieder & Tina Klautke & Alfons Weichenrieder, 2008. "Taxes and the Efficiency Costs of Capital Distortions," CESifo Working Paper Series 2431, CESifo.
    15. Huizinga, Harry & Laeven, Luc & Nicodeme, Gaetan, 2008. "Capital structure and international debt shifting," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 80-118, April.
    16. Jost H. Heckemeyer & Ruud A. de Mooij, 2017. "Taxation and Corporate Debt: Are Banks Any Different?," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 70(1), pages 53-76, March.
    17. Anat Admati & Martin Hellwig, 2014. "The Bankers' New Clothes: What's Wrong with Banking and What to Do about It: with a new preface by the authors," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10230.
    18. David Roodman, 2009. "How to do xtabond2: An introduction to difference and system GMM in Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 9(1), pages 86-136, March.
    19. Jihad Dagher & Giovanni Dell'Ariccia & Luc Laeven & Lev Ratnovski & Hui Tong, 2016. "Benefits and Costs of Bank Capital," IMF Staff Discussion Notes 16/04, International Monetary Fund.
    20. Myers, Stewart C., 1984. "Capital structure puzzle," Working papers 1548-84., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
    21. Peter Birch Sørensen, 2014. "Taxation and the Optimal Constraint on Corporate Debt Finance," CESifo Working Paper Series 5101, CESifo.
    22. International Monetary Fund, 2016. "Euro Area Policies: Selected Issues," IMF Staff Country Reports 2016/220, International Monetary Fund.
    23. Myers, Stewart C, 1984. "The Capital Structure Puzzle," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 39(3), pages 575-592, July.
    24. Stewart C. Myers, 1984. "Capital Structure Puzzle," NBER Working Papers 1393, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    25. Ruud A. de Mooij & Mr. Shafik Hebous, 2017. "Curbing Corporate Debt Bias," IMF Working Papers 2017/022, International Monetary Fund.
    26. Mills, Lillian F. & Newberry, Kaye J., 2004. "Do Foreign Multinationals’ Tax Incentives Influence Their U.S. Income Reporting and Debt Policy?," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 57(1), pages 89-107, March.
    27. Gordon, Roger & Lee, Young, 2007. "Interest Rates, Taxes and Corporate Financial Policies," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 60(1), pages 65-84, March.
    28. Mooij Ruud De & Hebous Shafik & Hrdinkova Milena, 2018. "Growth-Enhancing Corporate Tax Reform in Belgium," Nordic Tax Journal, Sciendo, vol. 2018(1), pages 1-17, January.
    29. Blundell, Richard & Bond, Stephen, 1998. "Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 115-143, August.
    30. Slemrod, Joel, 2009. "Lessons for Tax Policy in the Great Recession," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 62(3), pages 387-397, September.
    31. Anonymous, 1958. "International Monetary Fund," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(2), pages 223-224, April.
    32. Viral Acharya & Robert Engle & Matthew Richardson, 2012. "Capital Shortfall: A New Approach to Ranking and Regulating Systemic Risks," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(3), pages 59-64, May.
    33. Schepens, Glenn, 2016. "Taxes and bank capital structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(3), pages 585-600.
    34. Frances Ruane & Padraig Moore, 2005. "Taxation and the Financial Structure of Foreign Direct Investment," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp88, IIIS.
    35. Brambor, Thomas & Clark, William Roberts & Golder, Matt, 2006. "Understanding Interaction Models: Improving Empirical Analyses," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(1), pages 63-82, January.
    36. Anonymous, 1958. "International Monetary Fund," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(4), pages 542-543, October.
    37. Graham, John R., 1999. "Do personal taxes affect corporate financing decisions?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(2), pages 147-185, August.
    38. Peter Birch Sørensen, 2014. "Taxation and the optimal constraint on corporate debt finance," Working Papers 1427, Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation.
    39. Jihad Dagher & Mr. Giovanni Dell'Ariccia & Mr. Luc Laeven & Mr. Lev Ratnovski & Mr. Hui Tong, 2016. "Benefits and Costs of Bank Capital," IMF Staff Discussion Notes 2016/004, International Monetary Fund.
    40. Schandlbauer, Alexander, 2017. "How do financial institutions react to a tax increase?," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 86-106.
    41. Mintz, Jack M. & Weichenrieder, Alfons J., 2010. "The Indirect Side of Direct Investment: Multinational Company Finance and Taxation," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262014491, April.
    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. De Mooij, Ruud & Hebous, Shafik, 2018. "Curbing corporate debt bias: Do limitations to interest deductibility work?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 368-378.
    2. Pietro Dallari & Nicolas End & Fedor Miryugin & Alexander F. Tieman & Seyed Reza Yousefi, 2020. "Pouring oil on fire: interest deductibility and corporate debt," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 27(6), pages 1520-1556, December.
    3. Borsuk, Marcin & Kowalewski, Oskar & Qi, Jianping, 2023. "The dark side of bank taxes," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).

    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. Pietro Dallari & Nicolas End & Fedor Miryugin & Alexander F. Tieman & Seyed Reza Yousefi, 2020. "Pouring oil on fire: interest deductibility and corporate debt," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 27(6), pages 1520-1556, December.
    2. 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.
    3. Stöckl Matthias & Winner Hannes, 2013. "Körperschaftsbesteuerung und Unternehmensverschuldung: Evidenz aus einem Europäischen Firmenpanel / Capital Structure and Corporate Taxation: Empirical Evidence from European Panel Data," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 233(2), pages 188-205, April.
    4. Serena Fatica & Thomas Hemmelgarn & Gaëtan Nicodème, 2013. "The Debt-Equity Tax Bias: Consequences and Solutions," Reflets et perspectives de la vie économique, De Boeck Université, vol. 0(1), pages 5-18.
    5. 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.
    6. Nadja Dwenger & Viktor Steiner, 2014. "Financial leverage and corporate taxation: evidence from German corporate tax return data," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 21(1), pages 1-28, February.
    7. 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.
    8. Matthias Stöckl & Hannes Winner, 2012. "Körperschaftsbesteuerung und Unternehmensverschuldung. Evidenz aus einem europäischen Firmenpanel," WIFO Working Papers 422, WIFO.
    9. Horváth, Bálint L., 2020. "The interaction of bank regulation and taxation," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    10. Mai, Nhat Chi, 2012. "Market timing, taxes and capital structure: evidence from Vietnam," OSF Preprints t3mvs, Center for Open Science.
    11. Ruud A. De Mooij & Michael Keen, 2016. "Debt, Taxes, and Banks," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 48(1), pages 5-33, February.
    12. Devereux, Michael P. & Maffini, Giorgia & Xing, Jing, 2018. "Corporate tax incentives and capital structure: New evidence from UK firm-level tax returns," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 250-266.
    13. Grace Gu & Ruud Mooij & Tigran Poghosyan, 2015. "Taxation and leverage in international banking," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 22(2), pages 177-200, April.
    14. European Commission, 2011. "Tax Reforms in EU Member States 2011: tax policy challenges for economic growth and fiscal sustainability," Taxation Papers 28, Directorate General Taxation and Customs Union, European Commission.
    15. Dreßler, Daniel & Scheuering, Uwe, 2012. "Empirical evaluation of interest barrier effects," ZEW Discussion Papers 12-046, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    16. Horvath, B.L., 2013. "The impact of Taxation on Bank Leverage and Asset Risk," Other publications TiSEM 3e591f31-4fbc-460b-a5ed-e, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    17. Peter Birch Sørensen, 2017. "Taxation and the optimal constraint on corporate debt finance: why a comprehensive business income tax is suboptimal," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 24(5), pages 731-753, September.
    18. Alfons J. Weichenrieder & Tina Klautke & Alfons Weichenrieder, 2008. "Taxes and the Efficiency Costs of Capital Distortions," CESifo Working Paper Series 2431, CESifo.
    19. De Mooij, Ruud & Hebous, Shafik, 2018. "Curbing corporate debt bias: Do limitations to interest deductibility work?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 368-378.
    20. Jinbaek Park & Young Lee, 2019. "Corporate income taxes, corporate debt, and household debt," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 26(3), pages 506-535, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    WP; oil price; interest rate; Oil prices; equity prices; dividends; economic growth; oil supply; global oil markets; international business cycle.; equity price; standard error band; term interest rate; price relationship; price fall; oil price shock; oil price coefficient; Oil; Oil production; Stocks; Long term interest rates; Global;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • 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

    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:imf:imfwpa:2016/217. 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: Akshay Modi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/imfffus.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.