A number of studies have examined the effect of public and private ownership on the cost of debt and conclude that the cost of debt of privately owned firms is higher, driven mainly by the poorer information environment in which these firms operate. We extend this strand of research in two ways....

A number of studies have examined the effect of public and private ownership on the cost of debt and conclude that the cost of debt of privately owned firms is higher, driven mainly by the poorer information environment in which these firms operate. We extend this strand of research in two ways....

Firms invest non-trivial resources to avoid paying taxes. One of the presumed incentives for doing so is that it should increase the value of the firm. Surprisingly, a large number of studies find that tax expense is positively related to stock returns, suggesting that paying more taxes is good...