Jennifer Blouin

Jennifer Blouin
  • Richard B. Worley Professor of Financial Management
  • Professor of Accounting

Contact Information

  • 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.

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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.

  • Terrence Blackburne and Jennifer Blouin (Work In Progress), Understanding the Informativeness of Book-Tax Differences.

  • Jennifer Blouin, Leslie Robinson, Jeri Seidman (Under Review), Coordination of Transfer Prices on Intra-Firm Trade.

Teaching

Current Courses (Fall 2024)

  • ACCT9420 - Research In Acct Iii

    This is Part III of a theoretical and empirical literature survey sequence 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. Please contact the accounting doctoral coordinator for information on the specific upcoming modules/topics that will be taught.

    ACCT9420301 ( Syllabus )

All Courses

  • ACCT2970 - 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. If ACCT 2970 is not offered in a given year, Undergraduate students interested in ACCT 2970 will need to submit a permission request through Path@Penn. Please submit your request in Acct 8970. All prerequisites need to be completed in order to receive a permit. Also this class will follow the MBA calendar.

  • ACCT8970 - 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.

  • ACCT9420 - Research in Acct IIi

    This is Part III of a theoretical and empirical literature survey sequence 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. Please contact the accounting doctoral coordinator for information on the specific upcoming modules/topics that will be taught.

  • ACCT9430 - Research in Acct Iv

    This is Part IV of a theoretical and empirical literature survey sequence 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. Please contact the accounting doctoral coordinator for information on the specific upcoming modules/topics that will be taught.

  • FNCE2970 - 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. If ACCT 2970 is not offered in a given year, Undergraduate students interested in ACCT 2970 will need to submit a permission request through Path@Penn. Please submit your request in Acct 8970. All prerequisites need to be completed in order to receive a permit. Also this class will follow the MBA calendar.

  • FNCE7970 - 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.

  • WH2990 - Honors Thesis

    This seminar takes place over two semesters and provides students with the skills to perform their own research under the guidance of a Wharton faculty member. At the conclusion of the fall semester, students will produce a thesis proposal including literature review, significance of the research, methodology, and exploratory data if relevant. Throughout the fall semester faculty guests from a range of disciplines will present on their research in class, highlighting aspects that are relevant to the work students are engaging in at that point. During the second semester, students will collect and analyze data and write up the results in close collaboration with their faculty mentor. At the end of the spring semester, each student will present their research in a video presentation. Throughout the course, students will work individually, in small groups, and under the mentorship of a Wharton faculty member. The goal is to becomes capable independent researchers who incorporate feedback and critical (self-) analysis to take their research to the next level.

  • WH3990 - Honors Thesis

    This seminar takes place over two semesters and provides students with the skills to perform their own research under the guidance of a Wharton faculty member. At the conclusion of the fall semester, students will produce a thesis proposal including literature review, significance of the research, methodology, and exploratory data if relevant. Throughout the fall semester faculty guests from a range of disciplines will present on their research in class, highlighting aspects that are relevant to the work students are engaging in at that point. During the second semester, students will collect and analyze data and write up the results in close collaboration with their faculty mentor. At the end of the spring semester, each student will present their research in a video presentation. Throughout the course, students will work individually, in small groups, and under the mentorship of a Wharton faculty member. The goal is to becomes capable independent researchers who incorporate feedback and critical (self-) analysis to take their research to the next level.

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
  • Global Initiatives Fellowship, 2009-2013
  • Golub Faculty Scholar, 2009-2010
  • International Tax Policy Forum Research Grant, 2009-2011
  • 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

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Latest Research

Jennifer Blouin, Brian Bushee, Stephanie Sikes (Forthcoming), Measuring Tax-Sensitive Institutional Ownership.
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In the News

Why the Inflation Reduction Act May Hurt Businesses

The proposed new taxes on share buybacks and book income are based on conceptual misunderstandings and will hurt investment, according to Wharton's Jennifer Blouin.Read More

Knowledge at Wharton - 8/30/2022
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Final Exam

Take our challenge and win: An executive at a publicly traded company earned 10,000 shares of restricted stock. How should she vest them?

Wharton Magazine - 07/29/2013

Wharton Stories

Jennifer Blouin lecturingAccounting Prof. Jennifer Blouin Explains Why Everyone Needs to Understand Taxes

The goal of Prof. Jennifer Blouin’s class on Taxes and Business Strategy isn’t to make students tax experts. Instead, she wants students to develop a framework for understanding how taxes affect business decisions. “Anyone in business is going to deal with tax issues at some point whether they want to…

Wharton Stories - 05/14/2019
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