Jennifer Blouin
- Professor of Accounting
Contact Information
- Primary Email:
blouin@wharton.upenn.edu - Office Phone:
(215) 898-1266
- office Address:
1315 Steinberg Hall-Dietrich Hall
3620 Locust Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6365
Research Interests: effects of taxes on asset pricing, taxation, taxes and corporate payout behavior
Links: CV, Personal Website
Overview
Professor Jennifer Blouin’s research centers on the role of taxation in firm decision making.
Professor Blouin studies taxation in many contexts, including capital structure, asset pricing, payout policy and multinational firm behavior. Professor Blouin’s research has been published in top-tier academic journals including Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research, National Tax Journal and the Journal of the American Taxation Association. She has received funding from the Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research, the Global Initiatives Research Program and the International Tax Policy Forum. In addition, Professor Blouin is a 2009-2010 Golub Faculty Scholar.
Professor Blouin teaches taxation to undergraduate, MBA, and PhD students. She received her PhD in Accounting from the University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill and her BS from Indiana University – Bloomington.
Research
Jennifer Blouin, Brian Bushee, Stephanie Sikes (Forthcoming), Measuring Tax-Sensitive Institutional Ownership.
Abstract: We classify all institutional investors that file Form 13F over the period 1995–2013 as either “tax-sensitive” or “tax-insensitive” based on their trading behavior and portfolio characteristics. We examine tests of the effects of investor tax-sensitivity on portfolio rebalancing, price pressure, and fund performance, and compare our measure of tax-sensitive institutional investor ownership to three measures used in prior studies. We show that our measure of tax-sensitive investors dominates other measures in the portfolio rebalancing and price pressure tests. In the fund performance test, our measure of tax-sensitivity is the only one that finds that tax-sensitive investors have significantly lower returns on their portfolio stocks, which is a new result in the literature.
Jennifer Blouin and Bryan Cloyd (Work In Progress), Price Pressure from Dividend Reinvestment Activity: Evidence from Closed-End Funds.
Jennifer Blouin and Irem Tuna (Work In Progress), Tax Contingencies: Cushioning the Blow to Earnings?.
Jennifer Blouin and Mary Ellen Carter (Work In Progress), The Economics of Restricted Stock and the Section 83(b) Election.
Jennifer Blouin, Linda K. Krull, Casey Schwab (Under Revision), The Effect of the Domestic Manufacturing Deduction on Corporate Payout Behavior.
Jennifer Blouin, Linda K. Krull, Leslie Robinson (Work In Progress), The investment implications of permanently reinvested earnings.
Jennifer Blouin, Linda K. Krull, Leslie Robinson (Under Review), The location and composition of permanently reinvested earnings.
Jennifer Blouin, H. Huizinga, L. Laeven, G. Nicodeme (Under Review), Thin Capitalization Rules and Multinational Firm Capital Structure.
Jennifer Blouin, Leslie Robinson, Jeri Seidman (Under Review), Coordination of Transfer Prices on Intra-Firm Trade.
Terrence Blackburne and Jennifer Blouin (Work In Progress), Understanding the Informativeness of Book-Tax Differences.
Teaching
Past Courses
ACCT297 - TAXES AND BUS STRATEGY
The objective of this course is to develop a framework for understanding how taxes affect business decisions. The key themes of the framework - all parties, all taxes and all costs - are applied to decision contexts such as investments, compensation, organizational form, and mergers and acquisitions. The ultimate goal is to provide a new approach to thinking about taxes that will be valuable even as laws and governments change.
ACCT897 - TAXES AND BUS STRATEGY
The objective of this course is to develop a framework for understanding how taxes affect business decisions. Traditional finance and strategy courses do not consider the role of taxes. Similarly, traditional tax courses often ignore the richness of the decision context in which tax factors operate. The key themes of the framework - all parties, all taxes and all costs - are applied to decision contexts such as investments, compensation, organizational form, regulated industries, financial instruments, tax-sheltered investments, mergers and acquisitions, multinational, and multistate. The ultimate goal is to provide a new approach to thinking about taxes (and all forms of government intervention) that will be valuable even as laws and governments change.
ACCT921 - EMPIRICAL RES IN ACCT I
This is an empirical literature survey course covering topics that include corporate disclosure, cost of capital, incentives, compensation, governance, financial intermediation, financial reporting, tax, agency theory, cost accounting, capital structure, international financial reporting, analysts, and market efficiency.
ACCT922 - EMPIRICAL RES IN ACCT II
This is an empirical literature survey course covering topics that include corporate disclosure, cost of capital, incentives, compensation, governance, financial intermediation, financial reporting, tax, agency theory, cost accounting, capital structure, international financial reporting, analysts, and market efficiency.
Awards and Honors
- Penn Fellow, 2014-2015
- Jacob Levy Center Research Grant, 2014-2015
- MBA Excellence in Teaching Award, 2014
- Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research Grant, 2010-2011
- MBA Teaching Commitment and Curricular Innovation Awards, 2010
- American Taxation Association Tax Manuscript Award, 2010
- International Tax Policy Forum Research Grant, 2009-2011
- Golub Faculty Scholar, 2009-2010
- Global Initiatives Fellowship, 2009-2013
- Terker Research Fellowship, 2008-2009
- Educational Foundation for Women in Accounting Doctoral Fellowship, 2002
- AAA Doctoral Consortium Fellow, 2000
- KPMG Peat Marwick Doctoral Scholarship, 1998-2002
- AICPA Minority Doctoral Fellow, 1998-2002
In the News
- U.S. Companies Are Stashing $2.1 Trillion Overseas to Avoid Taxes, Bloomberg Business - 03/04/2015
- What Icahn Thinks Investors Are Missing in Apple’s Earnings, The Wall Street Journal - 02/18/2015
- If you had a bank account in the Cayman Islands, why would you pay taxes on it?, Quartz - 06/06/2013
- Apple chief calls on US government to slash US corporate tax, The Guardian - 05/21/2013
- Why Fantastically Wealthy Apple Is Borrowing Money, Wired - 05/01/2013
- All Eyes on Foreign Earnings, CFO.com - 12/15/2012
- Tax Incentive Helps Multinationals Repatriate 20% Less, Study Finds, CFO.com - 11/12/2012
- Tasting Three Flavors of Tax Software, New York Times - 02/13/2011
Knowledge @ Wharton
- When Tax Strategies Are Problematic for Firms – and Investors, Knowledge @ Wharton - 03/05/2019
- Could the Paradise Papers Lead to Tax Reforms?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 11/11/2017
- Why a U.S. Tax System Overhaul Would Be ‘a Massive Undertaking’, Knowledge @ Wharton - 05/26/2017
- The Real Losers in the European Commission’s Apple Tax Ruling, Knowledge @ Wharton - 09/08/2016
- Trump or Clinton? How the Election Will Impact the Economy, Knowledge @ Wharton - 08/17/2016
- Why New U.S. Rules Won’t Completely Halt Tax Inversions, Knowledge @ Wharton - 04/08/2016
- The HSBC Scandal: A Red Flag for U.S. Regulators?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 02/18/2015
- Capital Flight: Can Tax Inversions Be Prevented?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 09/16/2014
- Corporate Tax Avoidance: Can the System Be Fixed?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 06/19/2013
- Pressure Points: Where Tax Reform Can Be Most Effective, Knowledge @ Wharton - 02/13/2013
- Private Equity: Fact, Fiction and What Lies in Between, Knowledge @ Wharton - 02/29/2012
- Private Equity: Fact, Fiction and What Lies in Between, Knowledge @ Wharton - 02/08/2012
- Not a Dirty Word: How Companies Use Debt to Improve Their Bottom Line, Knowledge @ Wharton - 02/04/2009
Activity
Latest Research
In the News
When Tax Strategies Are Problematic for Firms – and InvestorsNew Wharton research finds that aggressive tax planning by accounting agencies can lead to a lack of transparency in firms’ financial reporting.
Knowledge @ Wharton - 2019/03/5