IMF Working Papers

Pouring Oil on Fire: Interest Deductibility and Corporate Debt

By Pietro Dallari, Nicolas End, Fedor Miryugin, Alexander F. Tieman, Reza Yousefi

December 7, 2018

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Pietro Dallari, Nicolas End, Fedor Miryugin, Alexander F. Tieman, and Reza Yousefi. Pouring Oil on Fire: Interest Deductibility and Corporate Debt, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2018) accessed December 21, 2024

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Summary

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.

Subject: Capital productivity, Commodities, Corporate income tax, Currencies, Debt bias, Financial statements, Money, Oil, Production, Public financial management (PFM), Tax policy, Taxes

Keywords: Bias coefficient estimate, Capital productivity, Coefficient estimate, Copyright Page, Corporate debt, Corporate Income Tax, Currencies, Debt, Debt Bias, Debt contract, Debt firm, Effect of debt bias, Estimates of debt bias, Europe, Financial statements, Firm, Global, Incurred debt, Interest deductibility, Leverage, Leverage decision, Leverage ratio, Long-term debt, Micro data, Oil, Quantile regression, SME, SMEs, Strength of debt bias, Tax Policy, WP

Publication Details

  • Pages:

    42

  • Volume:

    ---

  • DOI:

    ---

  • Issue:

    ---

  • Series:

    Working Paper No. 2018/257

  • Stock No:

    WPIEA2018257

  • ISBN:

    9781484389102

  • ISSN:

    1018-5941