Hold or sell? How capital gains taxation affects holding decisions

Investments with exit flexibility require decisions regarding both the investment and holding period. Because selling an investment often leads to taxable capital gains, which crucially depend on the duration of an investment, we investigate the impact of capital gains taxation on exit timing under different tax systems. We observed that capital gains taxation delays exit decisions but loses its decision relevance for very long holdings. Often the optimal exit time, which indicates the maximal present value of future cashflows, cannot be determined analytically. However, we identify the breakeven exit time that guarantees present values exceeding those of an immediate sale. While, after-taxes, an immediate sale is often optimal, long holding periods might also be attractive for investors depending on the degree of income and corporate tax integration. A classic corporate tax system often indicates holdings over more than 100 periods. By contrast, a shareholder relief system indicates the earliest breakeven exit time and thus the highest level of exit timing flexibility. Surprisingly, high retention rates are likely to accelerate sales under a classic corporate system. Additionally, the worst exit time, which should be avoided by investors, differs tremendously across tax systems. For an integrated tax system with full imputation, the worst time is reached earlier than under partial or non-integrated systems. These results could help to predict investors’ behavior regarding changes in capital gains taxation and thus are of interest for both investors and tax policymakers. Furthermore, the results emphasize the need to control for the underlying tax system in cross-country empirical studies.     

The impact of tax uncertainty on irreversible investment

Traditional models of capital budgeting with taxes are based on deterministic tax rates and tax bases. In reality, however, there are multiple sources of tax uncertainty. Frequent tax reforms make future taxation of investments a stochastic process. Fiscal authorities and tax courts create additional tax uncertainty by interpreting current tax laws differently. Moreover, simplified models that anticipate the actual tax base incorrectly contribute to tax uncertainty as perceived by investors. I analyze the effects of stochastic taxation on investment behavior in a real options model. The investor holds an option to invest in an irreversible project with stochastic cash flows and stochastic tax payments. Pre-tax cash flows and tax payments are assumed to be correlated. Increased tax uncertainty has an ambiguous impact on investment timing. For low tax uncertainty, high cash flow uncertainty and high correlation of cash flows and tax payments, increased tax uncertainty is likely to accelerate investment. A higher expected tax payment delays investment. A higher after-tax discount rate affects investment timing ambiguously.     

Assessing the performance of a development bank

The performance of a development bank can be assessed on the basis of ‘financial function’ and ‘development function’ criteria. While the financial function measures its operational efficiency in terms of the profitability of its investment operations, the developmental function evaluates its allocational efficiency as reflected by its investment activities for the economic development of the country and the stimulation of the capital market. The objective of this paper is to appraise the performance of the Industrial Finance Corporation of India, in terms of its profitability. The profitability has been analysed with reference to its (i) operating earnings, (ii) cost of operations, (iii) gross and net profit margins on the loan portfolio and (iv) rate of return and capital appreciation on the securities portfolio. The paper concludes with suggested measures to improve its profitability in future.     

THE IMPACT OF TAX POLICY ON INVESTMENT BEHAVIOR IN THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY, 1951-65

The purpose of this study was to estimate the impact of changes in Federal tax policy on investment behavior in the chemicals and allied products industry and to examine the possibility of a differential impact of changes in tax policy on investment behavior in manufacturing industries. The impact of changes in tax policy on investment behavior in the chemical and allied products industry was estimated and compared with the impact of tax policy on investment behavior in total manufacturing found in earlier studies. The model used to estimate the impact of changes in tax policy on investment behavior in the chemicals and allied products industry was the neo-classical model of capital accumulation as formulated initially by Dale Jorgenson. The conclusions reached were that changes in tax policy have had a measurable impact on investment behavior in the chemical and allied products industry which was greater as a percentage of gross investment than that found on total manufacturing in earlier studies.     

Governance Structures,Multidimensional Efficiency and Firm Profitability

Using a panel data set of 361 German corporations for the period 1991–1996 we test the hypothesis that firms with more efficient governance structures have higher profitability. To determine efficiency we compare firms with respect to ownership concentration, the identity of owners, capital structure, investment and firm growth by a multi-input/multi-output Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). This non-parametric linear programming technique considers both multiple in- and out- puts. Based on the concept of pareto efficiency, it computes an efficiency score where the associated weights of the inputs and outputs are determined endogenously. The DEA efficiency scores are then used as explanatory variables in panel data regressions of profitability. Our main finding is that the efficiency scores indeed contribute significantly to explaining profitability differences between firms, even after controlling for industry effects and unobserved systematic firm effects.     

Welche privaten Veräußerungsgewinne sollten besteuert werden?

This paper analyses for various corporate tax systems whether the capital gains tax distorts investment decisions and how tax effects could eventually be neutralized. In case of the disposal of shares between private investors the capital gains tax, the corporate tax and the income tax on dividends induce a triple taxation. On the contrary, distributing cash via share repurchases instead of paying out dividends can lower the tax burden in a classical corporate tax system and a shareholder relief system respectively. These findings necessitate the differentiation between share repurchases and other realizations of stocks in order to establish a neutral capital gains tax. While the capital gains taxation on transactions between private investors has to be reduced, the taxation of share repurchases must be matched with the respective dividend taxation.     

营运资本管理效率对公司盈利能力的影响——基于中国制造业上市公司的经验证据

本文使用2004-2006年我国沪深两市519家制造业上市公司作为研究样本,考察营运资本管理效率与公司盈利能力之间的关系.研究发现,公司盈利能力与反映营运资本管理效率的综合指标现金周期显著负相关,而且与现金周期的各组成部分应收账款周转期、存货周转期和应付账款周转期显著负相关.研究结果表明,管理层可以通过制定适当的信用政策和存货政策,将现金周期、应收账款周转期、存货周转期和应付账款周转期控制在合理的最优水平,实现营运资本的高效周转,提高公司盈利能力.     

Innovation in a waste economy

Despite the creativity of British engineers, British industry continues to lack innovative drive because of a climate inimical to commercial success. Contemporary industrial economies, unlike that of Victorian Britain, are geared to produce rapidly consumed and discarded products. Victorian engineers sought primarily to add to society's stock of capital rather than to consumption, and their designs were intended to endure rather than to promote change. All were subject to scrutiny on strict commercial criteria as a measurement of their fitness for their intended purpose. This represents a change in what society demands of the engineer. The innovator is, in Britain, subject to particular discouragements in the form of: low prestige attached to engineering, inadequate financial provision for investment, high corporate and personal taxation and bureaucratic encumbrances by government. By contrast, to flourish, innovation requires leadership, reward, recognition, a flexible economy and a flexible workforce, and adequate and cheap capital.     

新股上市后盈利能力下滑及募集资金使用分析

首先从盈利与成长能力的角度考察中国A股公司首次公开发行(IPO)前及发行后的长期基本面特性,以及IPO市场基本面的动态变化.发现A股公司的长期盈利能力在IPO之后显著下降.在对A股IPO募集资金使用情况进行长期的追踪与分析后,发现IPO募集资金投入不足和投向变更可能是造成A股IPO长期盈利能力下滑的重要原因.     

多阶段风险投资过程中控制权转移范围研究

本文从风险投资活动的具体实践特点出发,给出了多阶段风险投资过程时序模型,并对各个阶段的风险投资特点进行分析,对控制权转移进行了量化研究,得出在每个阶段为满足投资需求所产生的从创业企业家到风险投资家的控制权转移范围。在此结果上得出影响控制权转移范围的主要因素,并分析了主要影响因素对控制权转移范围的影响方向。相应的实证研究结果有力地支撑了该文理论分析的结论,得出的控制权转移范围将会为具体的风险投资决策活动提供有价值的理论依据以及参考。     

Solving the Feldstein–Horioka Puzzle With Financial Frictions

Unlike the prediction of a frictionless open economy model, long‐term average savings and investment rates are highly correlated across countries—a puzzle first identified by Feldstein and Horioka (1980). We quantitatively investigate the impact of two types of financial frictions on this correlation. One is limited enforcement, where contracts are enforced by the threat of default penalties. The other is limited spanning, where the only asset available is noncontingent bonds. We find that the calibrated model with both frictions produces a savings–investment correlation and a volume of capital flows close to the data. To solve the puzzle, the limited enforcement friction needs low default penalties under which capital flows are much lower than those in the data, and the limited spanning friction needs to exogenously restrict capital flows to the observed level. When combined, the two frictions interact to endogenously restrict capital flows and thereby solve the Feldstein–Horioka puzzle.     

Immigration Policy,Equilibrium Unemployment,and Underinvestment in Human Capital

We analyse the impact of different immigration policies on human capital investment in a search‐theoretic model. This class of models features unemployment and underinvestment in human capital. The underinvestment in human capital can be solved by combining immigration policy with appropriate education subsidies. Extending the model with respect to different skill groups allows to analyse the observed bimodal skilled immigration of the USA.     

配额——交易机制下动态批量生产和减排投资策略研究

随着我国碳排放交易市场的建立和发展,在碳排放约束下逐步降低单位产出的碳排放水平成为企业生产经营管理中的中长期约束性目标。本文在一个多周期决策模型中研究了配额-交易机制下企业的最优动态批量生产、碳排放权交易和减排投资联合决策问题。生产商在整个决策周期期初决定是否进行减排投资以及投资规模,根据每个周期的生产计划决定减排设备的运行计划。根据节能减排技术的特点,本文假设生产商运行减排设备时不仅降低了产品的单位生产碳排放量,而且降低了产品的单位生产成本。本文基于广义Benders分解法对模型进行了最优性分析,得到了最优生产决策和最优减排投资决策的一些基本性质,并通过数值实验分析了碳排放配额和碳排放权价格对生产商总成本、总排放以及减排投资决策的影响。本文的数值实验分析结果发现:(1)当碳交易市场上的碳排放权充足时,减少碳排放配额或改变碳排放配额的分配方式并不能影响生产商的碳排放水平;(2)碳排放权价格是影响生产商的碳排放水平和减排投资规模的关键因素;(3)随着碳排放权价格的上升,即使拥有足够的碳排放配额,生产商仍会不断提高减排投资规模以获得减排收益。研究结果对碳排放交易体系下生产企业进行减排技术投资具有较强的管理启示。     

终极控制、资本投向与配置绩效

基于终极股东自利动机与资本投向选择差异的理论阐释,实证考察了终极控制下的资本投向结构分布及其对总体投资绩效的影响.研究发现:1)终极股东的现金流权越低,越有增加固定资产、无形资产和股权并购的资本投入,以及削减R&D投资的动机;2)随着现金流权的降低,地方企业集团的固定资产投资规模和增速增大,地方资产公司的股权投资增长趋势更为强劲,这与两类地方国有终极股东的运营模式和谋利能力密切相关;3)由于获取特许和垄断性使用权的难度较大,民营终极股东自利动机对无形资产投资的影响不显著;4)终极股东自利动机下的投资选择,不仅降低了整体的资本配置绩效,而且导致投资结构的异化.上述研究结论,对于从产权角度来理解中国经济高速增长背后的微观投资的非效率成因具有重要意义,也为进一步改善技术创新投资的产权激励机制提供了理论依据.     

AUTOCORRELATED CASH FLOWS AND THE SELECTION OF A PORTFOLIO OF CAPITAL ASSETS *

Capital budgeting models for analyzing real assets typically are based on a set of restrictive assumptions that influence financial managers' decisions and may prevent optimization of the firm's objectives. This research examines the common restrictive assumption that cash flows are intertemporally independent by first developing an economic state and simulation model based on a Markov process for including autocorrelated cash flows in the capital budgeting decision process and then demonstrating why managers should include autocorrelated cash flows in capital budgeting models by empirically testing the impact of assuming intertemporally independent cash flows on capital budgeting decisions. The results indicate that ignoring autocorrelated cash flows seriously limits the ability of capital budgeting models to provide optimal investment decisions. The model also is very attractive for practical application because it can be implemented with a minimum number of estimates and provides the set of input data required by a number of capital budgeting models. A discussion of the implementation of the model is included.     

Private Equity and Bank Capital Requirements: Evidence from European Firms

Using firm-level data from 16 euro-area countries over 2008–2014, we investigate how the performance of bank-affiliated private equity-backed companies evolves after the European Banking Authority increased capital requirements for their parent banks. We find that portfolio companies connected to exposed banks reduce their level of investment and experience weaker asset growth, employment growth and profitability following the capital exercise. We further show that the effect is stronger for companies likely to face financial constraints. Finally, the findings indicate that the negative effect of the capital exercise is muted when the private equity sponsor is more experienced.     

Affective reactions influence investment decisions: evidence from a laboratory experiment with taxation

We experimentally investigate the effect of taxation of gains and losses on investment behavior. Based on the insights of economic research and psychological concepts, we expect subjects to react to taxation with behavioral and affective changes. Our main results are threefold: first, we show that taxation on gains and the possibility to deduct losses bias investment behavior, but in different directions. Since net payoffs are identical across all tax scenarios and therefore the same investment behavior is to be expected, these differences are in contrast to what a standard theory would predict. Second, we observe that different tax regulations have different effects on the affective and cognitive perception of our subjects. Third, with respect to possible connections of the affective and cognitive ratings, tax regulations, and investment decisions, we are able to show that arousal and risk perception fail to influence the decision making of participants, while there is a highly significant influence of valence perception on choice patterns.     

Classifying capital projects for top management decision-making

This paper is an attempt to redress a perceived imbalance in the research and literature of capital project analysis. There is a plethora of work on the quantitative aspects of project analysis, yet empirical surveys show limited use of such techniques. There is limited work on the organizational processes of project selection, but there appears to be little or no work taking place on formal organizational systems for project selection.The more quantitative literature generally takes a deductive approach using a model developed from microeconomics based on the assumption that the objective of the firm is the maximization of owners' wealth. In this paper it is argued that there is a need to take an inductive approach and place the capital investment decision in its organizational setting. This paper looks at the formal capital budgeting system within the corporate setting.It is suggested that the specific capital investment decision takes place against the background of a set of policies and constraints, which are more or less explicit.The selection of corporate projects is a complex issue, but to provide some structure so that the problems can be processed by the organization, a capital budgeting system is designed. Part of this system is the classification of projects according to some criteria. It would therefore appear that the purpose of this classification system is to aid capital project selection within an organizational context.A consideration of classification systems for capital projects is undertaken, this is followed by a survey of the classification systems which have been proposed in the capital investment literature. Finally a classification system based upon specific criteria is proposed.     

A modified internal rate of return model for capital rationing in project selection

The ability of a company to finance viable projects depends on the availability of funds, and this too is a function of time, interest rate and risk factors among others. Factors such as these would lead to limited fund availability, which would necessitate capital rationing. Linear/integer programming and profitability index are often used to tackle this problem for optimal solution. A third approach utilizing a modified internal rate of return (IRR) is proposed. To overcome the difficulty usually encountered in calculating IRR, a small program coded in BASIC is presented. Even though discounting the cash outflows beyond the initial year should have been ideal in the linear programming formulation, this paper casts doubts as to the validity of the solution derived from it, as different discount rates seem to produce very conflicting results from the same set of investment options. This is also applicable to profitability index. While efforts are being made to correct these lapses, the modified IRR model has been found useful in arriving at an optimum solution both for the single-period as well as for the multi-stage situation.     

Investigating investment decisions in equity crowdfunding: The role of projects' intellectual capital

The study aims to investigate the signalling role played by the intellectual capital of entrepreneurial projects towards crowdfunders. The study argues that information on; the intellectual capital of entrepreneurial projects posted on equity crowdfunding platforms can be perceived by external small investors or crowdfunders as signals of the venture's quality and can induce them to invest. By leveraging on the role of signalling theory in the mitigation of information asymmetries, the study argues that the intellectual capital of projects looking for equity crowdfunding is a powerful signal that positively affects the investment decisions of crowdfunders. Three components of entrepreneurial projects' intellectual capital – human, structural, and relational capital – are considered as factors affecting the success of equity crowdfunding campaigns, measured in terms of funding collected and the number of investors. The findings reveal that relational capital positively affects the investment decisions of equity crowdfunders and thus explains the success of equity crowdfunding campaigns. Factors related to human capital and structural capital have a positive impact on investment decisions, but only to a limited extent. This study provides valid implications for entrepreneurs, platform managers, and policy-makers/authorities.