Using event study methodology, we test the hypothesis that the 1985 capital gains exemption decreased the marginal effective tax rate on capital gains using two samples of stock market prices that control for industry and firm level effects of other aspects of the budget. We derive estimates of...

The 1986 Canadian federal budget, which increased the tax rate on dividends vis-a-vis capital gains, provides a natural experiment for examining the relationship between taxation and asset values. The authors employ a stock market event study to investigate the differential impact of this tax...