This paper estimates the impact of the debt tax shield, cash dividends and imputation tax credits on the prices of Australian stock index futures. Relative to futures payoffs, the cost of financing the set of shares of the underlying index provides a mild tax shield, cash dividends are...

Prior research finds that firms pay special dividends before a dividend tax increase. We examine the real effects of this decision, finding that firms incur costs to pay these tax-motivated special dividends. Specifically, firms reduce investment and repurchases to pay these dividends. Further,...