The Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 reduced shareholder level taxes on equity income. If shareholder level taxation is a component of cost of equity capital, then the cost of equity capital should decrease after the Tax Act. We find that the cost of equity capital decreases...

We examine the associations between leverage, corporate and investor level taxes, and the firm's implied cost of equity capital. Expanding on Modigliani and Miller [1958,1963], the cost of equity capital can be expressed as a function of leverage and corporate and investor level taxes. This...

The Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 (the 2003 Tax Act) drastically reduced shareholder level taxes on equity income. If shareholder level taxation is an important component of cost of equity capital, then cost of equity should decrease after the 2003 Tax Act. Using the...