Taxes and capital structure: Understanding firms' savings

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Armenter, Roc; Hnatkovska, Viktoria
• 署名单位: Federal Reserve System - USA; Federal Reserve Bank - Philadelphia; University of British Columbia
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF MONETARY ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3932
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jmoneco.2017.03.001
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 13-33
• 关键词: Corporate savings; debt; equity; Dividend taxation

摘要

The U.S. non-financial corporate sector became a net lender to the rest of the economy in the early 2000s, with close to half of all publicly-traded firms holding financial assets in excess of their debt liabilities. We develop a simple dynamic model of debt and equity financing where firms strive to accumulate financial assets even though debt is fiscally advantageous relative to equity. Moreover, firms find it optimal to fund additional financial asset holdings through equity revenues. The calibrated model matches well the distribution of public firms' balance sheets during the 2000s and correctly predicts which firms are net savers. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.