Title: Does CEO overconfidence influence tax planning? Evidence from Tunisian context

Authors: Khaoula Aliani; Imen Mhamid; Matteo Rossi

Addresses: Business Administration Department, College of Business Administration, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ' ISAEG, Business Administration Department, University of Gafsa, Gafsa, Tunisia ' DEMM Department, University of Sannio, Via delle Puglie, 82, 82100 Benevento, Italy

Abstract: The corporate decision-making process varies across firms because of the differences of their characteristics, particularly their chief executive officers (CEO) profiles. We predict that CEO personality traits impact tax planning. We shed light on one dimension of the CEO behaviour, such as overconfidence. This article aims to examine whether CEO overconfidence influences corporate tax planning. Using a sample of 28 Tunisian listed firms during 2001-2011, we find robust evidence of a positive relationship between CEO overconfidence and the propensities to minimise corporate taxes. Our findings add to the recent literature on overconfidence and complement their findings. The present study contributes to previous works by providing the first empirical evidence on the effect of CEO overconfidence on corporate tax policy in Tunisia.

Keywords: CEO overconfidence; Chief Executive Officers; CEOs; tax planning; Tunisia; corporate decision making; personality traits; corporate taxes; corporate tax policy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMFA.2016.081851

International Journal of Managerial and Financial Accounting, 2016 Vol.8 No.3/4, pp.197 - 208

Received: 22 Feb 2016
Accepted: 02 Jun 2016
Published online: 29 Jan 2017 *

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