Cournot seminar – Arthur Guillouzouic (AMSE, IPP)

Event details :

We are pleased to welcome to the next session of the BETA Cournot seminar organised with the support of the FSEG on Friday 13/02 at 2:00pm:

Arthur Guillouzouic (AMSE, IPP)

who will present his paper entitled

Follow the Money! Why dividends overreact to flat-tax reforms

Abstract:  We estimate behavioral responses to dividend taxation using recent French reforms: a rate hike and a cut. Exploiting household and firm tax data as well as data linking firms and shareholders, we find very large dividend tax elasticities. Individuals who control firms adjust dividend receipts instantaneously. Investment is insensitive to dividend taxation. Dividend adjustments are instead driven by corporate saving, as owner-managers treat firms as low-tax saving vehicles. Our results fit the “new view” of dividend taxation, provided an additional low-tax yet costly payout option is available that offers a tax arbitrage opportunity to entrepreneurs in control of their firms.