In a tax—public goods reciprocity framework between citizens and the state, managers view taxes as a payment to the government in exchange for public goods, and hence they adjust their willingness to pay taxes as public good quality changes. We show that corporate tax planning intensity increases with ground-level ozone pollution. Revisions in ozone pollution regulations cause counties that failed the revised and more stringent standards to reduce ozone pollution. Consequently, firms headquartered in these counties reduced corporate tax planning intensity relative to firms in other counties. The ozone-tax link varies in the predicted directions with public attention to pollution, potential welfare loss due to ozone, managers’ stakeholder orientation, taxpayers’ polluting status, political preferences, and civic norms. We also find consistent results for Superfund cleanups of hazardous waste sites. Our research sheds light on reciprocity as a potential mechanism influencing corporate tax compliance.
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- PhD in Accounting, University of Waterloo, Canada
- MSc in Statistics, University of Toronto, Canada
- MA in Economics, University of Toronto, Canada
- BA (First Class Honors), University of Alberta, Canada
Travis Chow is an Associate Professor of Accounting at HKU Business School. Prior to joining the University of Hong Kong in 2020, he was a faculty member at Singapore Management University. His research examines how taxation influences corporate and individual decision-making. His current research focuses on how international tax provisions, tax information reporting, and enforcement institutions affect multinational firms’ financial and operational decisions.
His work has been published in leading journals, including The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research, Contemporary Accounting Research, Management Science, and Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis. He serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of the American Taxation Association.
Professor Chow holds a PhD in Accounting from the University of Waterloo, an MSc in Statistics and an MA in Economics from the University of Toronto, and a BA (First Class Honours) from the University of Alberta.
Professor Chow teaches managerial accounting, ESG reporting, and international taxation and transfer pricing at the graduate level. He has also taught undergraduate courses in taxation, financial accounting, and management control, as well as a doctoral seminar in empirical tax research.
- Taxes and corporate decision-making.
- Travis Chow, Edward Maydew, and Guoman She (2026), “Mandatory Information Exchange, Cross-Border Income Shifting, and the Physical Flow of Tangible Goods.” The Accounting Review, Forthcoming.
- Travis Chow, Jeffrey Pittman, Muzhi Wang, Zitian Wang, and Le Zhao (2026), “Do Financial Statement Auditors Respond to Shifts in Corporate Tax Enforcement? Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design and Field Research.” Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, Forthcoming.
- Travis Chow, Allen Huang, Kai Wai Hui, and Terry Shevlin (2026), “Judge Ideology and Corporate Tax Planning.” Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Forthcoming.
- Travis Chow, Zhongwen Fan, Li Huang, Oliver Zhen Li, Siman Li (2023), “Reciprocity in Corporate Tax Compliance — Evidence from Ozone Pollution.” Journal of Accounting Research, 61 (5): 1425–1477, Lead Article.
- Travis Chow, Jeffrey Hoopes, and Edward Maydew (2023), “Profit Shifting During Foreign Tax Holidays.” The Accounting Review, 98 (4): 115–142.
- Jiang Cheng, Travis Chow, Tzu-Ting Lin, and Jeffrey Ng (2022), “The Effect of Accounting for Income Tax Uncertainty on Tax‐Deductible Loss Accruals for Private Insurers.” Journal of Risk and Insurance, 89 (2), 505–544.
- Travis Chow, Sterling Huang, Kenneth J. Klassen, and Jeffrey Ng (2022), “The Influence of Corporate Income Taxes on Investment Location: Evidence from Corporate Headquarters Relocations.” Management Science, 68 (2), 1404–1425.
- Xia Chen, Qiang Cheng, Travis Chow, and Yanju Liu (2021), “Corporate In‐house Tax Departments.” Contemporary Accounting Research, 38 (1), 443–482.
- Travis Chow, Ken Klassen, and Yanju Liu (2016), “Targets’ Tax Shelter Participation and Takeover Premiums.” Contemporary Accounting Research, 33 (4), 1440–1472. Presented at 29th CAR Conference.
- Principal Investigator, Hong Kong Research Grants Council General Research Fund (17504224), 2024–2026.
- Principal Investigator, Hong Kong Research Grants Council General Research Fund (17506123), 2023–2025.
- Co-Investigator, Hong Kong Research Grants Council General Research Fund (12501322), 2022–2024.
- FARS Excellence in Reviewing Award 2016 (Inaugural), American Accounting Association.
- Principal Investigator, Singapore Ministry of Education Tier 1 Research Grant, 2016–2018.
- Principal Investigator, Singapore Ministry of Education Tier 1 Research Grant, 2015–2017.
- AAA/Deloitte/J. Michael Cook Doctoral Consortium Fellow, Lake Tahoe, 2012.
- Editorial Board, Journal of the American Taxation Association
- Discussants for MIT Asia Conference, ATA Midyear Meeting, Oxford Tax Academic Symposium, Mannheim Taxation Conference, CEIBS Accounting and Finance Symposium, EIASM Conference on Research in Taxation, SMU Summer Camp, SMU Accounting Symposium, LBS Trans-Atlantic Doctoral Conference, etc.
- Ad hoc reviewer for academic journals: American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, British Accounting Review, Contemporary Accounting Research, European Accounting Review, Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, International Tax and Public Finance, Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Journal of the American Taxation Association, Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of International Accounting Research, Journal of International Business Studies, Management Science, Production and Operations Management, Review of Accounting Studies The Accounting Review.
We undertake the first empirical analysis of profit shifting by U.S. firms during foreign tax holidays. We show that foreign tax holidays have become a prevalent and powerful tax planning strategy among U.S. firms. We find that U.S. firms significantly increase their outbound profit shifting while participating in foreign tax holidays. However, we also find that profit shifting associated with tax holidays comes at the cost of increased tax uncertainty. Our results have important implications for policy making and for understanding firm behavior.
研究審視了司法管轄區中的企業所得稅和其他政策對企業作出總部選址決策的影響。透過研究美國州份中的企業所得稅隨時間和不同州份之間所產生的變化，我們發現當企業總部所在州份的企業所得稅稅率每提高一個百分點，企業把總部遷出該州的可能性會增加16.8%；反之，當企業總部所在州份的企業所得稅稅率每降低一個百分點，企業把總部搬遷的可能性則會降低 9.1%。我們的研究利用美國分攤制度中獨特的稅收政策特徵，有力地證明稅收加強上述的影響。我們的研究亦顯示，各州份所得稅的特點會影響企業總部的最終選址。透過展示州份所得稅政策如果影響企業決策，以及其對企業及國家所帶來的重大經濟後果，我們希望此研究能為企業決策方面作出貢獻。
在加拿大和新加坡兩地累聚多年研究和教學經驗，周家聰博士相信自己是時候回到香港這個成長地貢獻。他於2020年七月加入港大經管學院，成為會計學助理教授。