Does differential taxation of short-term relative to long-term capital gains affect long-term investment?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: He, Eric; Jacob, Martin; Vashishtha, Rahul; Venkatachalam, Mohan
• 署名单位: Duke University; WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management; Duke University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTING & ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0165-4101
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jacceco.2022.101479
• 发表日期: 2022
• 关键词: r-and-d; executive-compensation; transaction costs; Price volatility; Tax policy; lock-in; STOCK; investors; realization; INNOVATION

摘要

Pressure from short-horizon investors can hurt investments in innovative, long-run value-increasing projects. We explore the efficacy of a commonly proposed tax-based policy tool to mitigate this problem: the imposition of differentially greater taxes on short-term capital gains vis-a-vis long-term capital gains. Using a panel of 30 OECD countries in which seven countries exhibit 21 changes to differential capital gains taxation over 1991-2006, we find that rewarding longer-term ownership through lower taxes is associated with greater innovation. The evidence adds to our understanding of the real effects of taxation on investor trading and informs the debate on the use of capital gains taxes to address corporate myopia. (C) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.