ABSTRACT

Chief executive officers (CEOs) could use tax avoidance to reduce costs and hence increase firm profits. Nevertheless, the reputation of the firm could be harmed. Prior studies find that firms’ tax avoidance is associated with CEOs’ personality traits. We attempt to predict firms’ engagement in tax avoidance using CEOs’ flying hobby measured by the pilot certificate. Using various advanced machine learning methods, we find that CEOs’ hobby of flying airplanes is significantly associated with increased corporate tax avoidance. In particular, we find CEOs with a student, private, or airline transport pilot certificate are more likely to engage in corporate tax avoidance while CEOs with a commercial pilot certificate are less likely to engage in corporate tax avoidance. This study advances prior literature and helps investors, regulators, and policymakers to predict firms’ tax avoidance strategies using executives’ hobby.

摘要

首席执行官 (CEO) 可以利用避税来降低成本，从而增加公司利润。然而，公司的声誉可能会受到损害。先前的研究发现，企业的避税行为与 CEO 的人格特质有关。我们试图使用通过飞行员证书衡量的 CEO 的飞行爱好来预测公司的避税行为。使用各种先进的机器学习方法，我们发现 CEO 的飞行爱好与企业避税增加显着相关。特别是，我们发现拥有学生、私人或航空公司运输飞行员证书的 CEO 更有可能参与企业避税，而拥有商业飞行员证书的 CEO 参与企业避税的可能性较小。这项研究推进了先前的文献，并帮助投资者、监管机构、