IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/2192.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Effects of Taxation on the Merger Decision

Author

Listed:
  • Alan J. Auerbach
  • David Reishus

Abstract

This paper presents estimates of the tax benefits generated by a sample of U.S. mergers and acquisitions involving two public corporations over the period 1968-83 and estimates a "marriage model" based on differences between these mergers and another sample of "pseudomergers" that did not occur to determine the impact of these tax benefits on the probability of two firms combining. Our findings reject the hypothesis that leverage played a large role in fostering these transactions, and that the tax losses and credits of acquired firms likewise exerted no impact on merger activity. Though the use of such benefits by acquiring firms to shield profits of other firms did increase the level of activity, the impact was quite small. On the whole, our results suggest that the changes in tax provisions with respect to mergers introduced by the Tax Reform Act of 1986 will have a small impact on U.S. mergers and acquisitions.

Suggested Citation

  • Alan J. Auerbach & David Reishus, 1987. "The Effects of Taxation on the Merger Decision," NBER Working Papers 2192, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:2192
    Note: PE
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w2192.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bradford, David F., 1981. "The incidence and allocation effects of a tax on corporate distributions," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 1-22, February.
    2. Roger H. Gordon & James R. Hines, Jr. & Lawrence H. Summers, 1987. "Notes on the Tax Treatment of Structures," NBER Chapters, in: The Effects of Taxation on Capital Accumulation, pages 223-258, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Andrei Shleifer & Lawrence H. Summers, 1988. "Breach of Trust in Hostile Takeovers," NBER Chapters, in: Corporate Takeovers: Causes and Consequences, pages 33-68, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Alan J. Auerbach & James M. Poterba, 1987. "Tax-Loss Carryforwards and Corporate Tax Incentives," NBER Chapters, in: Taxes and Capital Formation, pages 89-92, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. James R. Hines, Jr., 1987. "The Tax Treatment of Structures," NBER Chapters, in: Taxes and Capital Formation, pages 37-50, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Alan J. Auerbach & James R. Hines, Jr., 1987. "Anticipated Tax Changes and the Timing of Investment," NBER Chapters, in: Taxes and Capital Formation, pages 85-92, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Alan J. Auerbach, 1979. "Wealth Maximization and the Cost of Capital," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 93(3), pages 433-446.
    8. Julian R. Franks & Robert S. Harris & Cohn Mayer, 1988. "Means of Payment in Takeovers: Results for the United Kingdom and the United States," NBER Chapters, in: Corporate Takeovers: Causes and Consequences, pages 221-264, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. 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.
    10. Miller, Merton H, 1977. "Debt and Taxes," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 32(2), pages 261-275, May.
    11. Palepu, Krishna G., 1986. "Predicting takeover targets : A methodological and empirical analysis," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 3-35, March.
    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. Auerbach, Alan J., 2002. "Taxation and corporate financial policy," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 19, pages 1251-1292, Elsevier.
    2. Don Fullerton & Yolanda Kodrzycki Henderson, 1987. "The Impact of Fundamental Tax Reform on the Allocation of Resources," NBER Chapters, in: The Effects of Taxation on Capital Accumulation, pages 401-444, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Schönemann, Kristin, 2009. "Finanzierungsstrategien und ihre Auswirkungen auf den Unternehmenswert deutscher Immobilien-Kapitalgesellschaften," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 94, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    4. Bradford, D.F., 1989. "Market Value Us. Financial Accounting Measures Of National Saving," Papers 34, Princeton, Woodrow Wilson School - Discussion Paper.
    5. Alan Auerbach & Michael P Devereux & Helen Simpson, 2007. "Taxing corporate income," Working Papers 0705, Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation.
    6. Hans-Werner Sinn, 1991. "Taxation and the Cost of Capital: The "Old" View, the "New" View, and Another View," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 5, pages 25-54, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Serge Nadeau & Robert P. Strauss, 1991. "Tax Policies and the Real and Financial Decisions of the Firm: the Effects of the Tax Reform Act of 1986," Public Finance Review, , vol. 19(3), pages 251-292, July.
    8. Fullerton, Don & Mackie, James B. III, 1989. "Economic Efficiency in Recent Tax Reform History: Policy Reversals or Consistent Improvements?," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 42(1), pages 1-13, March.
    9. Roger Gordon & Laura Kalambokidis & Joel Slemrod, 2003. "A New Summary Measure of the Effective Tax Rate on Investment," NBER Working Papers 9535, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Mihir A. Desai & William M. Gentry, 2004. "The Character and Determinants of Corporate Capital Gains," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 18, pages 1-36, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Jespersen, Jesper, 2005. "Debat og kommentarer: Keynes-inspireret makroøkonomisk teori," Nationaløkonomisk tidsskrift, Nationaløkonomisk Forening, vol. 2005(1), pages 104-121.
    12. McGee, M. Kevin, 1998. "Capital Gains Taxation and New Firm Investment," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 51(n. 4), pages 653-73, December.
    13. 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.
    14. 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.
    15. Albæk, Karsten, 2005. "Om lærepladsspørgsmålet," Nationaløkonomisk tidsskrift, Nationaløkonomisk Forening, vol. 2005(1), pages 1-25.
    16. Deen Kemsley & Padmakumar Sivadasan & Venkat Subramaniam, 2018. "The composite dividend tax rate," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(7), pages 727-758, November.
    17. William M. Gentry & R. Glenn Hubbard, 1998. "Fundamental Tax Reform and Corporate Financial Policy," NBER Working Papers 6433, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Abildgren, Kim, 2005. "Interest-Rate Development in Denmark 1875-2003 – A Survey," Nationaløkonomisk tidsskrift, Nationaløkonomisk Forening, vol. 2005(1), pages 153-167.
    19. Hansen, Lars Gårn & Krarup, Signe, 2005. "Bør virksomheder oplyses om sandsynligheden for kontrol?," Nationaløkonomisk tidsskrift, Nationaløkonomisk Forening, vol. 2005(1), pages 43-64.
    20. Bentzen, Jan & Smith, Valdemar, 2005. "Short-run and long-run relationships in the consumption of alcohol in the Scandinavian countries," Nationaløkonomisk tidsskrift, Nationaløkonomisk Forening, vol. 2005(1), pages 65-80.

    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:nbr:nberwo:2192. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.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.