Dividend and Corporate Taxation in an Agency Model of the Firm

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Chetty, Raj; Saez, Emmanuel
• 署名单位: Harvard University; National Bureau of Economic Research; University of California System; University of California Berkeley
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.2.3.1
• 发表日期: 2010
• 页码: 1-31
• 关键词: free cash flow; payout policy; tax; BEHAVIOR; FUTURE; signal; cost

摘要

Recent evidence on the effect of dividend taxes on firm behavior is inconsistent with neoclassical theories of dividend and corporate taxation We develop a simple agency model in which managers and shareholders have conflicting interests to explain the evidence In this model, dividend taxation induces managers to undertake unproductive investments by retaining earnings, and creates a first-order deadweight cost In contrast, corporate taxes do not distort the manager's payout decision and may only create second-order efficiency costs Corporate income taxation may therefore be a more efficient way to generate revenue than dividend taxation, challenging existing intuitions based on neoclassical models (JEL D21, G35, H25, H32)