We investigate the relation between tax avoidance and tax uncertainty, where tax uncertainty is the possibility of losing a claimed tax benefit upon challenge by a tax authority. On average, we find that tax avoiders, i.e., firms with relatively low cash tax rates, do bear significantly greater tax uncertainty than firms that have higher cash tax rates. However, we find that this relation is driven by firms with tax haven subsidiaries and high levels of R&D expense, proxies for intangible-related transfer pricing strategies. Thus, contrary to expectations, general tax avoidance (i.e., unrelated to tax havens) does not explain variation in tax uncertainty. The findings have implications for several puzzling results in the literature but also raise new questions.
Longxiu Tian, UNC Kenan-Flagler assistant professor of marketing, shares his expertise in resilient business strategies and his perspective on firms' attempts to build trust and profitability with innovative consumer data management strategies.
Following state-level legal changes that increase labor dismissal costs, firms increase their innovation in new processes that facilitate the adoption of cost-saving production methods, especially in industries with a large share of labor costs in total costs. Firms with high innovation ability exhibit larger increases in process innovation and capital-labor ratios, an effect driven by both increases in capital investment and decreases in employment. By facilitating the adjustment of the input mix when conditions in input markets change, innovation ability allows firms to mitigate value losses and is a key driver of their performance.
We quantify the immediate net effect of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) on the tax burden of corporate profits for public US corporations.
This study finds that voluntary non-earnings disclosure substitutes for redacted proprietary contract information. When firms redact contract information, they provide more voluntary disclosures and have higher information uncertainty and asymmetry. Although firms provide both voluntary non-earnings and earnings disclosures when they redact contract information, only non-earnings disclosures included in Forms 8-K mitigate the higher information uncertainty and asymmetry associated with redaction. These findings suggest earnings disclosures may not be specific enough to substitute for redacted contract information and contrast with the presumption in related research that firms provide earnings disclosures to substitute for withheld proprietary information.
The Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, in partnership with Infinia ML, an advanced machine learning company that delivers transformative automation solutions and data science to enterprise businesses, will host a cross-sector symposium on Friday, Nov. 30 to advance the field of machine learning. Academic and business leaders will come together with students to connect the possibilities of cutting-edge ML research with the realities of practical implementation.
In addition to academic presentations, the Conference on Market-Based Solutions for Reducing Wealth Inequality took participants out of the classroom and into the community for a walking tour and on-site discussions in nearby Durham, N.C.
Please join the Center for the Business of Health and the Kenan Institute for an exclusive lunchtime conversation with Dr. Craig Albanese and Dr. Wesley Burks, joined by Kody Kinsley. The Dean's Speaker Series talk is on Friday, Nov. 3 at 12:30 p.m.
The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the “Chevron deference,” a legal doctrine that grants regulatory agencies authority in interpreting statutes. The decision could significantly alter the regulatory landscape.
Discussions at the forum, sponsored by the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, ranged from the federal Opportunity Zones program to making the transition from angel to institutional investing.
The recipients of the Kenan Investment Management Fellowships for 2017 were announced by the Institute for Private Capital and Center for Excellence in Investment Management in partnership with the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School.
The Private Equity Research Consortium this fall plans to make fund holdings data available for academic research—a development that helps mark the 10-year partnership between data provider Burgiss and the Institute for Private Capital, an affiliate of UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School’s Frank H. Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise.
Interested in a recap of the Frontiers of Business Conference: Workforce Disrupted? Read the key takeaways and powerful insights from the conference's speakers and panelists on the 2023 grand challenge theme.
We examine empirically and theoretically the relation between firms’ risk and distance to consumers in a production network. We document two novel facts: firms farther away from consumers have higher risk premiums and higher exposure to aggregate productivity. We quantitatively explain these findings using a general equilibrium model featuring a multilayer production process.
Why are downturns following high valuations of firms long and severe? Why do firms choose high debt when they anticipate high valuations, and underperform subsequently? We propose a theory of financing cycles where the importance of creditors’ control rights over cash flows (“pledgeability”) varies with industry liquidity.
The Research Triangle and the Piedmont Triad epitomize North Carolina’s economic evolution. The Triangle transitioned from legacy industries to high-tech manufacturing and experienced explosive economic growth; the Triad may be poised to join it.
Because current earnings predict future financial performance, the stock market reacts strongly to earnings announcements. How rapidly and in what manner information about marketing actions and strategies is accounted for in the stock valuation is less clear.
The prevailing view of implied volatility comovements, IVC, defined as the correlation between a firm’s implied volatility and the market’s implied volatility, is that they indicate the presence of systematic volatility risk to the firm’s investors. We take a different stance and conjecture that implied volatility comovements can also indicate expected information arrival for both the firm and aggregate equity markets, and we find evidence supporting this view.
On Monday, Sept. 24, a standing room-only crowd gathered at the Kenan Center in Chapel Hill to participate in a fireside chat with Krishnamurthy Subramanian, the 17th chief economic advisor to the government of India. The program was led by UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School professors Anusha Chari and Christian Lundblad.
In her new position as Kenan Institute director of research, UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School Finance Professor Paige Ouimet will maintain the institute’s connections with the school that create the steady flow of translational research for business practitioners and policymakers.