The tax, employee benefit, capital structure, and corporate control effects of ESOPs are examined by estimating the stock market reaction to ESOP announcements. This is the first empirical examination of the relationship between computed firm-specific tax savings and firm value, and therefore provides evidence that helps resolve the theoretical dispute over ESOP tax savings. The results show that investors expect ESOPs to increase cash flows through tax savings, and to reduce the likelihood of takeover for companies subject to takeover attempts when ESOPs are announced.

We study the decision to fund R&D through a separate financing organization (an ‘RDFO’) that takes the form of either a limited partnership or a corporation. The RDFO offers tax and financial reporting benefits. As a form of external funding, it also creates moral hazard and adverse selection problems (information costs). Using convertible debt as a comparative form of external funding, we find that debt-related (but not equity-related) financial reporting benefits affect the decision to form RDFOs, the evidence is mixed on whether taxes influence the formation decision, and the information costs of RDFOs restrict their use.

This paper investigates how banks alter the timing and magnitude of transactions and accruals to achieve primary capital, tax, and earnings goals. Recent research, including Moyer [1990], Scholes, Wilson, and Wolfson [1990], and Collins, Shackelford, and Wahlen [1995], provides evidence that banks execute transactions and manage accruals to achieve some or all of these objectives. A common feature of these studies is the assumption that when managers make a particular accrual or transaction decision, all other decisions are fixed. We relax this assumption and allow such decisions to be determined simultaneously.