Promotie G. Massenz

This thesis investigates how features of the tax system influence the behavior of business owners and their firms. The first chapter examines how differential taxation of personal and corporate income impacts firms’ legal form choice. The second chapter explores how closely held corporations and their owners respond to corporate tax incentives. Specifically, it investigates the main channels of adjustment, the main predictors of responsiveness, persistence in firms’ and director-owners’ behavior, and the link between personal and corporate taxable income optimization. Finally, the third chapter studies the effect of a fiscal stimulus policy that temporarily changed loss carry-back rules on small and medium corporations’ survival, employment, investments, and profits.

Gabriella Massenz (Turin, Italy, 1991) earned her Bachelor’s degree in Business Economics from the University of Turin in 2013. In 2016, she obtained her Master’s degree in Economics and Business cum laude from Erasmus University Rotterdam. After gaining professional experience at CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis and the European Central Bank, she began her PhD at Tilburg University in 2018. In 2021, she visited the University of Mannheim and ZEW, and in 2022, she was a lecturer and visiting researcher at Erasmus University Rotterdam. In 2023, she joined the Research Institute of Industrial Economics as a postdoctoral researcher.

• Locatie: Cobbenhagen building, Aula
• Promotor: prof. dr. A.M. Lejour
• Copromotor: dr. E.W.M.T. Westerhout