Dividend Taxes and Share Prices: Evidence from Real Estate Investment Trusts
利用房地产投资信托基金（REITs）在股息政策上的有限自由度和资产透明度，研究发现公司价值与税基正相关，表明未来股息税被资本化到股价中。
Prior empirical evidence regarding the impact of dividend taxes on firm valuation is mixed. This study avoids some of the complications encountered in previous empirical work by exploiting institutional characteristics of REITs, such as their limited discretion over dividend policy and the relative transparency of REIT assets. We regress the market value of equity on the market value of assets and tax basis, which creates tax deductions that lower future dividend taxes without affecting future pretax cash flow. We find that firm value is positively related to tax basis, suggesting that future dividend taxes are capitalized into share prices.