Problem: Stock repurchases, and dividends have been a topic of academic interest for decades. Researchers have been trying to understand the determinants of payout policies and the conjunctural relationship between dividends and repurchases. That is, under which circumstances is one preferred over the other. In this paper, we make an attempt to contribute to the already existing research on the area. For this purpose, we study a specific period in time when a tax reform was enacted. That way we hope to obtain information on the payout policy that companies choose, and how the taxes influence these Purpose: In this paper our aim is to find out, by using a sample of quarterly data prior and after the implementation of the 2012 (enacted in 2012 and put into effect in January 1, 2013) tax reform (four quarters prior and four quarters after), whether the payout policies are affected by the changes in the dividend and/or the capital gain tax. This may, in turn, reveal information about the dividends and repurchases and how corporations choose to respond to adjustments in taxes as explained by the dependent variables. Method: We perform multinomial logistic, fixed and random effects regression analyses to the quarterly data of companies listed on the United States stock market benchmark index, the S&P 500. We use descriptive statistics and theoretical fundamentals to establish a relationship between the dividends and repurchases policies, as the changes in the tax code come to effect. Results and Conclusion: Despite the size of the sample, we found that firms tend to prefer; 1) to do a combination of dividend and repurchases, and 2) when taxes increase, there is a positive effect on dividend, and that repurchases are preferred over dividends.

<p>This paper investigates the environmental effectiveness of the Swedish energy taxes. That is, whether these have decreased the CO2 emissions and how they have changed the structure of the energy consumption. Time series data for the years 1960-2002 is used. The results show that the oil and coal taxes seem to favour a substitution towards less CO2 intensive energy sources. For the natural gas tax however, the opposite is true. An energy saving effect is found for the oil tax and the petrol tax, but the electricity tax seems to increase energy consumption. Regarding the total effect on CO2 emissions, the oil and coal taxes seem to decrease CO2 emissions while the natural gas tax seems to increase them.</p><p>Cross-country regressions are also made to examine if countries with a higher petrol tax have lower a lower rate of CO2 emissions on average. The results show that a higher petrol tax is significantly correlated to lower CO2 emissions.</p><p>The results thus indicate that energy taxes do decrease CO2 emissions. They also show that caution should be used before implementing a natural gas tax since it can have adverse effects on the CO2 emissions.</p>

This paper investigates the environmental effectiveness of the Swedish energy taxes. That is, whether these have decreased the CO2 emissions and how they have changed the structure of the energy consumption. Time series data for the years 1960-2002 is used. The results show that the oil and coal taxes seem to favour a substitution towards less CO2 intensive energy sources. For the natural gas tax however, the opposite is true. An energy saving effect is found for the oil tax and the petrol tax, but the electricity tax seems to increase energy consumption. Regarding the total effect on CO2 emissions, the oil and coal taxes seem to decrease CO2 emissions while the natural gas tax seems to increase them. Cross-country regressions are also made to examine if countries with a higher petrol tax have lower a lower rate of CO2 emissions on average. The results show that a higher petrol tax is significantly correlated to lower CO2 emissions. The results thus indicate that energy taxes do decrease CO2 emissions. They also show that caution should be used before implementing a natural gas tax since it can have adverse effects on the CO2 emissions.

Economic integration and mobility of capital have set the ground for a significant competition over resources. Tax competition for internationally mobile tax bases such as foreign direct investments has become an important matter of study. Nevertheless, literature has focused on a regional or geographical neighboring condition competition through taxes. This dissertation aims to test whether tax competition for foreign direct investment has changed its regional characteristic towards a global or world-wide competition. Global or world-wide tax competition can be thought of as uncooperative tax policy reactions between governments of different countries of the world not necessarily near each other geographically, but in similar economic conditions and with the purpose to influence the allocation of mobile tax bases world-wide. For the purpose of this study, export oriented foreign capital investment was referred to as the internationally mobile tax base. A theoretical model was constructed allowing for three countries, geographical distance, transportation costs, labor and technology skills, as well as four types of individuals: workers, capitalists, and two types of entrepreneurs. Optimal corporate statutory and average effective tax rates were obtained in order to serve as reaction functions between governments and evaluate the presence of tax competition. A spatial econometric model was used to estimate the empirical approximation of the theoretical model. Four types of weight matrixes were computed: homogeneous weights, similar economic conditions, similar transportation costs from the FDI host country to the FDI home country, and neighboring conditions of FDI host countries. The sample covered 53 countries from different areas of the world from 1984 to 2002. Regarding the data, several variables were constructed, among those: the corporate average effective tax rate. The statutory corporate tax rate was discarded since it misses important factors for capital investment such as tax holidays and depreciation schedules. The principal result suggests that countries from the sample appear to behave in a tax competitive way not only in geographical neighboring terms but also in a global or world-wide approach. In fact, countries appear to compete in a stronger way in global or world-wide terms than when assuming a regional or neighboring condition.

The efficacy of the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts was a major topic of discussion in the 2010 midterm elections. I investigate the effect of the possible expiration and eventual extension of the dividend tax cut on US stock market performance in 2010 based on the methodology used by Amronin, Harrison and Sharpe (2008). I compare aggregate performance of US common stocks relative to foreign stocks using equity indices, and examine cross-sectional performance amongst US stocks by creating different stock portfolios based on their dividend yield. This comparison is done over two event windows, (1) 20-24 September 2010 and (2) 3-8 December 2010. Consistent with previous studies, I find that the US stock market did respond to negative and positive news on the extension of the Bush-era dividend tax cuts, with stock prices falling and rising, respectively. My findings also suggest that this aggregate effect was probably muted by the redistribution of funds by investors from lower-yield to higher-yield stocks. Unlike in 2003, however, in the post-financial crisis context of 2010, the redistribution seemed to particularly favor stocks with medium-dividend yield, rather than smaller, higher-risk stocks with the highest dividend yield.

The thesis has closely examined that an important shortcoming of the Keynesian analysis is the neglect of potential tax-induced aggregate supply effects, and therefore, just as Marshall's proverbial scissors with one "misplaced" blade, the government cannot make proper policy decision. Hence, this paper incorporates the tax-induced aggregate supply effects into the analysis. When a model does not include the supply-side effects of tax-induced, it degrades to a Ramirez (1986) and cannot be sued for policy assignment. On the other hand, a model incorporates the tax-induced aggregate supply effects remedies the flaws in Ramirez (1986) and can be used for appropriate policy assignment.

Thesis (Ph. D. (Economics))--University of Pretoria, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 174-181).

This study exploits the recently-issued Uncertain Tax Position Statement (Schedule UTP) to examine the effect of mandatory disclosures of tax uncertainty to tax authorities on firms' reporting decisions. Schedule UTP requires firms to disclose federal income tax positions to the Internal Revenue Service that have been classified as 'uncertain' for financial reporting purposes. In showing how Schedule UTP disclosure requirements affect private and public reporting decisions, I provide insights into the usefulness of these disclosures. Using confidential tax return data and public financial statement data, I find that after imposition of Schedule UTP reporting requirements, firms report lower financial reporting reserves for uncertain income tax positions, but do not claim fewer income tax benefits on their federal tax returns. These findings suggest some firms changed their financial reporting for uncertain tax positions to avoid Schedule UTP reporting requirements without changing the underlying positions. The effect is concentrated among firms with greater business complexity, whose business operations facilitate tax planning strategies that are more difficult for the IRS to identify. More broadly, my results imply private disclosures of tax uncertainty can affect the informativeness of public disclosures of tax uncertainty. / text

This thesis investigates the impact that the corporate income tax rate has on inflows offoreign direct investment (FDI) in high-income OECD countries during the periods1998-2006. The thesis has a small focus on Sweden and how this country’s policies canaffect inward FDI. Moreover, the determinants of FDI are analyzed in order to build amodel that allows to see the influence that the statutory corporate income tax rate has onthese countries. OLS regressions are used to find the degree to which certain variables,specifically the corporate tax rate, have an impact of the dependent variable (i.e.aggregate inflows of FDI). The independent variables are: GDP, skilled labour, labourcosts, economic freedom as a proxy for trade openness and property rights,infrastructure, the corporate income tax rate, dummy variables to account for timeeffects and three dummy variables for continental location targeting whethergeographical location is of relevance of not.It is concluded that the corporate income tax rate does have a significant impact on FDIinflows in OECD members for the specified period. Additionally, economic freedom,gdp and geographical location are also found to be important variables that determinethe inflows of FDI. Other variables are found insignificant in almost all regressions.

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