Existing theories of a firm’s optimal capital structure seem to fail in explaining why many healthy and profitable firms rely heavily on equity financing, even though benefits associated with debt (like tax shields) appear to be high and the bankruptcy risk low. This holds in particular for...

By granting intracompany loans to their foreign affiliates, multinational firms may reduce their tax liability abroad. Many countries have legislated thin-capitalization rules (TCRs) that limit the allowable levels of intracompany loans or restrict interest deductibility if certain thresholds...

This article describes the new ACE-type system implemented in Italy since 2012. We have first shown that this system reduces but does not eliminate the financial distortion due to interest deductibility. Using a dataset of Italian companies, we analyzed the impact of this relief on Italian firm...