It is not a flat world after all: Tax repatriation costs and cash value

US corporations have accumulated record‐high amounts of cash, and most of it is trapped in foreign accounts. This study tests the hypothesis that the marginal value of cash decreases in the presence of tax repatriation costs, as these costs are a strong indication that part of the cash is trapped abroad. Cash abroad is not readily available to the company because it is subject to an additional layer of tax before it can be used or distributed. Moreover, uncertainty surrounds the potential use of foreign cash, and research documents that firms holding high amounts of cash abroad are likely to invest in negative net present value activities. Finally, possible changes in tax regulation are an additional source of uncertainty. Consequently, foreign cash should be worth less than domestic cash. Using a large sample of US firms drawn from COMPUSTAT during the 1991–2012 period, the analysis suggests that shareholders value an extra dollar of cash at $1.086. However, this result changes dramatically when the change in cash is interacted with the tax cost of repatriating the earnings. That is, the marginal value of cash decreases significantly in the presence of tax repatriation costs, and shareholders discount cash when it is likely to be held abroad. This study contributes to the literature on cash holding by investigating whether tax repatriation costs affect the value of corporate cash. Moreover, the findings show that there are important economic consequences linked to the phenomenon of cash accumulation in foreign countries and therefore provide regulators with a sound foundation on which to take additional actions to require more disclosure of and transparency in the actual location of firms’ cash holdings.     

Repatriation taxes, repatriation strategies and multinational financial policy

Several investment-repatriation strategies are added to the standard model of a multinational in which an affiliate is located in a low-tax country and is limited to two alternatives: repatriating taxable dividends to the parent or investing in its own real operations. In our model, affiliates can invest in passive assets, which the parent can borrow against, or in related affiliates which can be used as vehicles for tax-favored repatriations. We show analytically how the availability of alternative strategies can effect real investment throughout the worldwide corporation. We use firm level data for US multinationals to test for the importance of alternative strategies. The evidence is generally consistent with the theory, particularly the strategies using related affiliates.     

Dividend reinvestment plans: An empirical analysis

This study examines the effect of initiating discount and no discount dividend reinvestment plans on shareholder wealth. The results show a negative response to DRP announcements, which is significantly smaller than that found in studies of new equity offerings. These results are consistent with the Scholes and Wolfson (1989) hypothesis that managers in need of equity capital use DRPs to mitigate the adverse stock price effects of new equity issue announcements. Furthermore, there is a significant difference in the price response of discount and no discount DRPs for industrial firms. This result is supportive of the signaling potential of discount DRPs. Supportive evidence is also found in the analysis of firm characteristics for industrial firms.     

上市公司股利分配现状及对策研究

本文分析了我国上市公司股利分配的现状及存在的主要问题,并深入地剖析了这些问题产生的原因。在此基础上,从内部规范和外部规范两个方面提出改进我国上市公司股利分配的对策,以其对发展与完善我国资本市场提供帮助。     

上市公司资本结构微观决定因素分析

我国上市公司资本结构的突出特点是偏好股权资本,内源融资和债权融资的比重偏低,这有悖于经典的资本结构理论。本文分析了决定上市公司资本结构的微观因素,并提出了优化上市公司资本结构的建议。     

投资者股利政策偏好及其交易行为

本文选取了2002-2004年深沪两市派发股利的公司作为研究样本,通过T检验和一元线性田归模型发现,投资者偏好混合股利和股票股利主要是由于这两种股利形式带来较之现金股利更高的回报率.同时,在回报率较高时往往伴随有显著的交易量增加,调整后的判定系数在1%的水平上显著,但是也表现出一定的滞后性.     

上市公司股权结构与股利政策相关性实证分析——西北五省区的数据

本文以2002年~2004年西北五省区有股利分配的上市公司作为样本,采用多元回归分析方法,验证股权结构自变量与股利之间的线性关系,用非线性回归方法检验未通过线性关系检验的自变量与股利之间的关系。结果发现,西北五省区股利偏低,股东对现金股利有不同偏好。     

分红保险合同红利负债的确认与计量研究

近年来分红保险已成为我国保险市场的热销产品,它几乎占据了寿险市场的半壁江山,但分红保险负债的确认与计量问题,特别是分红保险红利负债的确认与计量问题在我国并未形成统一的规范,本文根据分红保险的不同红利分配方式对分红保险合同红利负债的确认与计量问题进行研究。     

上市公司股利分配理性化引导

本文认为,我国上市公司股利不分配股利的公司居多,且分配股利的以股票股利为主,现金股利的支付水平极低。这种非理性化股利政策对我国上市公司、投资者和资本市场均造成了极为不利的影响。为此,迫切需要尽快将上市公司的股利分配引导到理性状态。     

西方现代股利政策理论的演进与评价

股利政策是个谜。四十多年来,西方财务学者分别从不同的角度、运用不同的方法对股利政策进行了大量的理论和实证研究。本文对此进行了较为系统和全面的回顾与评述。早期股利理论研究主要集中在股利政策与股票价格是否有关的研究上,其观点主要有在手之鸟理论和股利无关论。20世纪八十年代后,股利之争主要集中在股利为什么会引起股票价格变化,其观点有追随者效应、信号理论、代理学说和行为学派等。虽然这些学派的观点在不同程度上还存在一些缺点,但它们改变了传统理论的思维方式和分析方法,极大地扩展了财务学的研究视野,从而使股利政策研究在“量”和“质”上均产生了很大的飞跃。