Download This PaperThe Role of Creditor Protection in Lending and Tax Avoidance
Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, forthcoming
72 Pages Posted: 14 Jan 2021 Last revised: 15 Mar 2022
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The Role of Creditor Protection in Lending and Tax Avoidance
The Role of Creditor Protection in Lending and Tax Avoidance
Date Written: November 27, 2021
Abstract
We examine how creditor rights affect the trade-off between non-debt and debt tax shields. Using four bankruptcy reforms and a panel of private and public firms from Italy, we show that laws empowering creditors reduce tax avoidance and increase debt financing, consistent with firms substituting non-debt tax shields with debt tax shields. We corroborate the validity of our findings using a panel of public firms across 33 countries. Additionally, we document that the impact of creditor protection laws is mitigated by tax system characteristics, which significantly reduce the incentives to substitute tax avoidance with debt.
Keywords: government policy and regulation, bankruptcy, debt, capital structure, tax avoidance
JEL Classification: G28; G32; G33; H26; K34; M41
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
