 State corporate tax changes and bond pricing: U.S. evidenceHong Zhao, Hao Shen, Haizhi Wang and Yun Zhu International Review of Financial Analysis, 2024, vol. 92, issue C Abstract: In this study, we empirically investigate whether and to what extent state tax changes may affect the cost of debt. We employ staggered changes in state corporate income tax rates in the U.S. as exogenous shocks and estimate the effects of these state tax changes on bond at-issue yield spreads. We find a significant and positive relation between bond yield spreads and state tax increases but an insignificant relation between bond yield spreads and state tax decreases. On average, tax increases result in an increase of 34 basis points in the average bond yield spread. In addition, we document that bond investors demand higher yield spreads because tax increases aggravate firms' default risk by increasing firm leverage and return volatility. Moreover, we extend our analysis to equity holders and report a negative relation between stock market reaction to bond issuances subject to state tax increases. Keywords: State tax changes; Cost of debt; Bond issues; Default risk; Asymmetric pattern (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:finana:v:92:y:2024:i:c:s1057521923005732 DOI: 10.1016/j.irfa.2023.103057 Access Statistics for this article International Review of Financial Analysis is currently edited by B.M. Lucey More articles in International Review of Financial Analysis from Elsevier |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.