Do Investment Tax Provisions Affect Firm Risk-Taking? Evidence From Bonus Depreciation
7 May 2025
10:30 -12:45
Times are shown in local time.
Open to: All
Room W4.03 (Cambridge Judge Business School)
Trumpington St
Cambridge
CB2 1AG
United Kingdom
Join our Accounting seminar
Speaker: Dr Spyros Gkikopoulos, Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester
About the seminar
This study examines how investment tax provisions affect firm risk-taking. Leveraging quasi-experimental variation in accelerated depreciation schedules created by US bonus depreciation provisions, I implement a generalised Difference-in-Differences framework and find that firms increase risk in response.
Tests of the underlying economic mechanism show that the risk-taking effects are concentrated among financially constrained firms, indicating that bonus depreciation provisions alleviate financial frictions. Robustness checks, including event study and placebo treatment designs, validate the identification strategy. These findings highlight the role of bonus depreciation provisions in shaping firm risk preferences and provide insights for informed debates on corporate tax policy.
Speaker bio
Spyros Gkikopoulos is an Assistant Professor of Accounting at Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS), The University of Manchester. His research broadly encompasses theoretical and empirical taxation, focusing on 2 primary areas. First, he investigates the economic consequences of corporate taxation by examining how corporate tax rates, taxable income, and tax planning shape firm-level and aggregate outcomes. Second, he explores the real effects of environmental taxes.
Before joining AMBS, Spyros worked as a senior auditor at Ernst & Young, where he gained extensive experience with Initial Public Offerings (IPOs), Mergers & Acquisitions (M&As), and Public-to-Private Transactions (P2Ps). He frequently leverages this professional background to teach prospective students in Accounting and Finance the valuation and stewardship roles of accounting information, and corporate taxation.
Spyros earned a PhD in Accounting and Finance from AMBS.
Register
No registration required. If you have any questions about this seminar, please email Emily Brown.