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Virginia Tech

CEO Severance Agreements and Tax Avoidance

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

This study investigates the association between CEO severance agreements and corporate tax avoidance. Severance agreements, by providing executives with additional compensation when there is a change in employment status, should serve to encourage additional risk-taking, as reflected by increased tax avoidance activities. Using a large sample of aggregate compensation data, I find some evidence of a relation between the presence of a CEO severance agreement and tax avoidance. Using a smaller sample of hand-collected data, I find a significant negative relation between the magnitude of cash severance pay and tax avoidance and a significant positive relation between the magnitude of equity severance pay and tax avoidance. Overall, this study provides evidence that the structure and magnitude of severance agreements are related to tax avoidance.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Ph. D.
Level thesis:degree_level
doctoral
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Accounting and Information Systems
Department dc:contributor.department
Accounting and Information Systems
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2015

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Stancill, Alan Jonathan
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Salbador, Debra A.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Cloyd, C Bryan
  • Carlson, Kevin D.
  • Maher, John J.
  • Johnson, Eugene Scott

Subjects

dc:subject × 3

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
vt_gsexam:6847
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/77862

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Stancill, Alan Jonathan. CEO Severance Agreements and Tax Avoidance. doctoral thesis, Virginia Tech, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/77862