公司避税能降低权益资本成本吗?——基于中国资本市场的证据

Does Corporate Tax Avoidance Decrease the Cost of Equity Capital?Evidence from Chinese Capital Market

传统观点通常认为公司避税可以无摩擦地增加股东财富,然而近年来的一系列研究表明避税与公司价值之间关系的结论并未统一。文章从权益资本成本角度研究中国资本市场上市公司避税对投资者评价的影响,结果表明公司避税并未如传统观点预期那样降低权益资本成本,相反增加了权益资本成本。结合中国资本市场的特征发现,上述正相关关系主要体现在国有企业中,即相较于非国有企业,国有企业避税对权益资本成本的正向影响更显著,表明投资者对国有企业避税并未给予正面评价。进一步考察两类公司差异背后的机理发现,上述结果与两类公司避税节省现金流的边际价值、避税导致的代理成本以及对公司透明度的影响等方面的差异有关。研究不仅提供了中国资本市场公司避税与权益资本成本关系的经验证据,而且对于理解国有企业与非国有企业避税经济后果差异背后的机理具有启示意义。

Traditional views generally considered corporate tax avoidance could increase shareholders’wealth frictionlessly,but recent studies indicate that the relationship between tax avoidance and firm value hasn’t been unified.From the perspective of the cost of equity capital,this paper studies the impact of corporate tax avoidance on investors’evaluation.The results show that tax avoidance of Chinese listed firms does not reduce the cost of equity capital as traditional views considered,but increases it.Taking characteristics of Chinese capital market into consideration,this paper finds that the positive impact of tax avoidance on the cost of equity capital is significantly higher in stateowned enterprises(SOEs)than in non-state-owned enterprises(NSOEs),which indicates that investors do not give a positive evaluation on tax avoidance of SOEs.Further study tests the mechanism underlying differences between SOEs and NSOEs,and finds that the above results are related to differences in the marginal value of cash flow saved by tax avoidance,agency costs caused by tax avoidance and the impact of tax avoidance on corporate transparency.The findings not only provide empirical evidence on the relationship between corporate tax avoidance and the cost of equity capital in Chinese stock market,but also have important implications for the understanding of mechanisms underlying differences in economic consequences of tax avoidance between SOEs and NSOEs.