Do Wealth Taxes Drive Firms to Increase Dividend Payouts?

Summary

A “wealth tax,” like those currently levied in several European countries and being debated in the United States, is considered a recurrent annual tax on individual or household net wealth. The study examines the effect of individual wealth taxes on the dividend policies of European public firms. Specifically, it investigates whether the imposition of wealth taxes paired with substantial increases in stock prices leads to significantly higher dividend payouts