Pouring Oil on Fire: Interest Deductibility and Corporate Debt

Download or read book Pouring Oil on Fire: Interest Deductibility and Corporate Debt written by Pietro Dallari and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2018-12-07 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper investigates the role of tax incentives towards debt finance in the buildup of leverage in the nonfinancial corporate (NFC) sector, using a large firm-level dataset. We find that so-called debt bias is a significant driver of leverage, for both small and medium-sized enterprises and larger firms, with its effect accounting for about a quarter of leverage. The strength of this effect differs with firm size, the availability of collateral, income and income volatility, cash flow, and capital intensity. We conclude that leveling the playing field between debt and equity finance through tax policy reform would decrease NFC leverage, reducing economic risks posited by leverage.