INVESTOR TAX-TRADING OPPORTUNITIES AND DISCOUNTS ON CLOSED-END MUTUAL FUNDS

Discounts on closed-end mutual funds are a puzzle to financial economists, because arbitrage activities should eliminate discounts in a perfect capital market. In this paper I develop a model that explains discounts, using Merton's option pricing theorem. By holding shares of a closed-end mutual fund, investors lose valuable tax-trading opportunities associated with the constituent securities of the closed-end mutual fund's portfolio. However, investors can take advantage of all tax-trading opportunities by directly holding the closed-end mutual fund's portfolio. I also show that both variances of individual securities and correlations among securities in the portfolio are important factors in determining the magnitude of discounts.     

On the optimality of international capital market integration

The focus of this paper is on the benefits to investors, arising out of the integration of the capital markets of different countries. The notion that an expansion in the opportunity set of individual investors causes improvements in their welfare is analyzed to take account of the effects on their wealth. With the supplies of investments held constant, the effects of changes in the macroparameters of the risk-return pricing relationship, caused by the merger of capital markets, on the wealth of individuals in the new equilibrium, are determined. Using three specific utility functions – quadratic, exponential and logarithmic – it is shown that international capital market integration is Pareto-optimal, i.e., the welfare of individuals in the economies considered never declines, and will generally improve. The effect of expansion of the opportunity set, due to the integration of capital markets, nullifies the effect of a possible negative change in wealth.     

Investment barriers and international asset pricing

In this article a multicountry model of international asset pricing is developed. This model incorporates a more general representation of the degree of segmentation in the international capital market. Specifically,N types of investors andN classes of securities are postulated. In general, thenth (n=1, 2, 3, ...N) type of investor has access to all security markets up to and including thenth class. Using the standard mean-variance framework, closed form equilibrium risk return relationships are obtained for all classes of securities. It is also shown that class 1 securities are priced as if markets are integrated, classn (n=2, 3 ...N) securities commandn different risk premia. Finally, the nature of the model specification allows us to investigate the effects of partial integration on investor welfare. It is shown that, in general, all investors prefer full integration to any form of partial integration.     

International asset pricing under segmentation and PPP deviations

We analyze the impact of both purchasing power parity (PPP) deviations and market segmentation on asset pricing and investor's portfolio holdings. The freely traded securities command a world market risk premium and an inflation risk premium. The securities that can be held by only a subset of investors command two additional premiums: a conditional market risk premium and a segflation risk premium. Our model is empirically supported with important implications for tests of international asset pricing.     

GOLBALIZATION, CORPORATE FINANCE, AND THE COST OF CAPITAL

International financial markets are progressively becoming one huge, integrated, global capital market—a development that is contributing to higher stock prices in developed as well as developing economies. For companies that are large and visible enough to attract global investors, having a global shareholder base means having a lower cost of capital and hence a greater equity value for two main reasons: First, because the risks of equity are shared among more investors with different portfolio exposures and hence a different “appetite” for bearing certain risks, equity market risk premiums should fall for all companies in countries with access to global markets. Although the largest reductions in cost of capital resulting from globalization will be experienced by companies in liberalizing economies that are gaining access to the global markets for the first time, risk premiums can also be expected to fall for firms in long-integrated markets as well. Second, when firms in countries with less-developed capital markets raise capital in the public markets of countries (like the U.S.) with highly developed markets, they get more than lower-cost capital; they also import at least aspects of the corporate governance systems that prevail in those markets. For companies accustomed to less-developed markets, raising capital overseas is likely to mean that more sophisticated investors, armed with more advanced technologies, will participate in monitoring their performance and management. And, in a virtuous cycle, more effective monitoring increases investor confidence in the future performance of those companies and so improves the terms on which they raise capital. Besides reducing market risk premiums and improving corporate governance, globalization also affects the systematic risk, or “beta,” of individual companies. In global markets, the beta of a firm's equity depends on how the stock contributes to the volatility not of the home market portfolio, but of the world market portfolio. For companies with access to global capital markets whose profitability is tied more closely to the local than to the global economy, use of the traditional Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) will overstate the cost of capital because risks that are not diversifiable within a national economy can be diversified by holding a global portfolio. Thus, to reflect the new reality of a globally determined cost of capital, all companies with access to global markets should consider using a global CAPM that views a company as part of the global portfolio of stocks. In making this argument, the article reviews the growing body of academic studies that provide evidence of the predictive power of the global CAPM as well as the reduction in world risk premiums.     

Barriers to international investing and market segmentation: Evidence from Indian GDR market

In this paper we evaluate market segmentation and its effect on the pricing of cross-listed securities using Indian Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs). When international capital markets are segmented, cross-listed securities may trade at different prices. We test this market segmentation hypothesis using a theoretical and empirical model developed along the lines of Hietala [Hietala, P.T., 1989, Asset pricing in partially segmented markets: Evidence from the Finnish market, Journal of Finance 44, 697–718]) and Foerster and Karolyi [Foerster, S.R., Karolyi, A.G., 1999, The effects of market segmentation and investor recognition on asset prices: Evidence from foreign stocks listing in the United States, Journal of Finance 54, 981–1013; Foerster, S.R., Karolyi, A.G., 1999, The long-run performance of global equity offerings, Working Paper, Ohio State University]. Our model looks at a specific type of market segmentation in India, where capital flow barriers are such that domestic investors are allowed to invest only in domestic securities, while the foreign investors can invest in dollar-denominated Indian GDRs as well as other foreign securities. Tests on these GDRs indicate that foreign investors, who hold these depositary receipts, estimate the expected returns at a lower level than the domestic investors do. This leads to the GDRs being priced at a premium over the exchange rate adjusted prices of the underlying Indian securities. GDR index returns are affected by both domestic and international factors, while the underlying Indian securities are affected only by domestic variables.     

Taxes and portfolio composition

This paper explores investors portfolio behavior when security returns can be described by one of the forms of the CAPM model and investors pay taxes. The conditions under which an investor holds the market portfolio are explored. In addition the extent to which securities are held in proportions which differ from market weights are shown to be functions of tax rates, dividend policies, and the variance covariance structure between all securities.     

权证对投资者投资偏好影响的实证研究

金融衍生产品的出现提高了证券市场信息传递的速度，知情交易者通过对衍生品的投资提高传递的效率。本文通过对我国权证市场和相应标的股票市场交易高频数据的研究，探讨知情交易者在权证市场出现后是否改变了投资的对象。实证结果表明，尽管有部分知情交易者投资了认购权证，但是并没有证据表明知情交易者偏好认沽权证。造成这一结果的原因可能是权证制度自身的缺陷。     

Capital Market Integration in the Middle East and North Africa

This paper studies capital market integration in Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries and its implications for international portfolio investment allocation. Starting with four cointegration methodologies, we significantly reject the hypothesis of a stable, long-run bivariate relationship between each of these markets and the European Monetary Union (EMU), the United States, and a regional benchmark. This indicates the existence of significant diversification opportunities for three categories of investors (EMU, world, and regional investors). A recursive analysis based on Barari (2004) suggests that recently, the MENA markets have started to move toward international financial integration. Investigating the effect of selected financial, economic, and political events on such a process, we extend the methodology and find that the markets react heterogeneously to the different categories of shocks. They should therefore not be treated as a bloc for global allocation purposes. Finally, after adjusting the integration levels by relative market capitalization, Israel and Turkey are the most promising markets in the region, followed by Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco. Tunisia and Lebanon seem to be lagging behind.     

中国证券投资基金的需求与其风格“标签”关系的实证分析

对于以组合管理为基本方法的证券投资基金,由于其投资风格选择的不同会导致投资者对其投资偏好的差异,加之证券市场的非有效性和投资者的非完全理性,投资者对基金的投资决策更多基于心理动机和行为因素的判断。本文运用行为组合理论,对我国证券市场封闭式基金的折价状况进行了考察,分析了证券投资基金投资风格选择对基金需求的影响及我国证券市场投资者的需求特点和偏好状况。     

基于国外经验借鉴的越南证券投资基金业发展策略探讨

证券投资基金是资本市场的重要组成部分,也是资本市场中最为重要的机构投资者之一,基金已经成为投资者参与证券投资的重要工具,以基金为代表的资产管理已经成为金融市场上与银行、证券、保险同等重要的金融服务业。本文通过对国外证券投资基金行业发展的借鉴回顾和分析了越南基金行业的发展历程,揭示越南基金行业所存在的问题并采取措施予以有效的解决,并对比中国、美国、英国的经验针对所存在的问题提出了政策措施建议。     

Differences in Information and Common Stock Returns: Estimation Risk or Unequal Distribution of Information?

Information can be differential or “incomplete” in two different ways: as a result of the quality of information itself or as a result of the manner in which information is distributed to investors. The effect on capital market equilibrium under either scenario is that higher returns will be required for low information securities. Prior empirical studies documenting a relationship between low information firms and positive abnormal returns have generally attributed such results to the quality of information; the current research tests the possibility that these results are instead due to the manner in which information is distributed to investors.     

Securities Laws, Disclosure, and National Capital Markets in the Age of Financial Globalization

As barriers to international investment fall and technology improves, the cost advantages for a firm's securities to trade publicly in the country in which that firm is located and for that country to have a market for publicly traded securities distinct from the capital markets of other countries will progressively disappear. Securities laws remain an important determinant of whether and where securities are issued, how they are valued, who owns them, and where they trade. I show that there is a demand from entrepreneurs for mechanisms that allow them to commit to credible disclosure because disclosure helps reduce agency costs. Under some circumstances, mandatory disclosure through securities laws can help satisfy that demand, but only provided investors or the state can act on the information disclosed and the laws cannot be weakened ex post too much through lobbying by corporate insiders. With financial globalization, national disclosure laws can have wide-ranging effects on a country's welfare, on firms and on investor portfolios, including the extent to which share holdings reveal a home bias. In equilibrium, if firms can choose the securities laws they are subject to when they go public, some firms will choose stronger securities laws than those of the country in which they are located and some firms will do the opposite.     

Integration of Trans-Atlantic Capital Markets, 1790-1845

During the 1790s, European investors began to purchase substantial quantities of US government and corporate securities. A number of these securities were traded in markets on both sides of the Atlantic. Based on market price quotations we compiled for the same securities in London and New York markets, we ask if these early trans-Atlantic securities markets were integrated, and, if so, when they became integrated. We find little evidence of market integration before 1816, and substantial evidence of it thereafter. Financial globalization - the convergence of financial asset prices in markets on different continents - began earlier than most have suspected.     

Alternate approach to unify CAPM and APT

We utilize the joint elliptical distribution to model a multi-factor return generating process and derive an equilibrium multi-beta capital asset pricing model (CAPM) in which the market portfolio and a set of nonelliptical factors are sufficient to price all financial assets. Most important, it is shown that the market portfolio, while generally nonelliptical, can proxy all elliptical factors and hence: including elliptical factors in addition to the market portfolio in the pricing equation contribute nothing to asset pricing. While the representative investor prices the exposure of aggregate wealth to various nonelliptical systematic risk factors, individual securities are priced in accordance to their contributions to different aspects of the risk of aggregate wealth. The present model collapses to the Sharpe-Lintner CAPM when either the market investor is neutral to nonelliptical risk factors or when all risk factors follow a joint spherical distribution. When residuals cancel out of the market portfolio, the present model collapses to Conner (1984) pricing model.     

Asymmetric information,adverse selection,and the pricing of CMBS

We demonstrate that asymmetric information between sellers (loan originators) and purchasers (investors and securities issuers) of commercial mortgages gives rise to a standard lemons problem, whereby portfolio lenders use private information to liquidate lower quality loans in commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) markets. Conduit lenders, who originate loans for direct sale into securitization markets, mitigate problems of asymmetric information and adverse selection in loan sales. Our theory provides an explanation for the pricing puzzle observed in CMBS markets, whereby conduit CMBS loans are priced higher than portfolio loans, despite widespread belief that conduit loans are originated at lower quality. Consistent with theoretical predictions of a lemons discount, our empirical analysis of 141 CMBS deals and 16,760 CMBS loans shows that, after controlling for observable determinants of loan pricing, conduit loans enjoyed a 34 basis points pricing advantage over portfolio loans in the CMBS market.     

Arbitrage pricing,transaction costs and taxation of capital gains: A study of government bonds with the same maturity date

This paper examines one of the few cases of seemingly redundant securities: sets of three government bonds with the same maturity date. Within the bounds on relative bond prices established by tax-exempt investors in a market with proportional transaction costs, the taxation of capital gains on the basis of realization has a significant impact on relative prices. The empirical evidence supports the tax option effect discussed by Constantinides and Ingersoll, but does not generally support the segmented tax-clientele equilibrium discussed by Schaefer.     

Capital market equilibrium with heterogeneous investors

As a two-parameter model that satisfies stochastic dominance, the mean-extended Gini model is used to build efficient portfolios. The model quantifies risk aversion heterogeneity in capital markets. In a simple Edgeworth box framework, we show how capital market equilibrium is achieved for risky assets. This approach provides a richer basis for analysing the pricing of risky assets under heterogeneous preferences. Our main results are: (1) identical investors, who use the same statistic to represent risk, hold identical portfolios of risky assets equal to the market portfolio; and (2) heterogeneous investors as expressed by the variance or the extended Gini hold different risky assets in portfolios, and therefore no one holds the market portfolio.     

险资持股对上市公司股价波动的影响研究 ——基于机构投资者异质性视角

保险机构已经成为资本市场重要的机构投资者,其在整个资本市场中的作用日益受到关注.基于机构投资者异质性的视角,对保险机构和证券投资基金、社保基金以及Q FII等其他机构投资者的持股特征进行对比分析,总结梳理保险机构投资者持股的特征.并运用面板数据模型,从长期持股和持股比例变动两个方面对比分析保险机构持股与证券投资基金持股对股价波动的影响.结果表明:在样本期间内,相对于证券投资基金,保险机构长期持股起到了稳定股市的作用,但保险机构持股比例变动会加剧股市的波动.     

Cash demand,liquidation costs and capital market equilibrium under uncertainty

In this paper, the portfolio and the liquidity planning problems are unified and analyzed in one model. Stochastic cash demands have a significant impact on both the composition of an individual's optimal portfolio and the pricing of capital assets in market equilibrium. The derived capital asset pricing model with cash demands and liquidation costs shows that both the market price of risk and the systematic risk of an asset are affected by the aggregate cash demands and liquidity risk. The modified model does not require that all investors hold an identical risky portfolio as implied by the Sharpe-Lintner-Mossin model. Furthermore, it provides a possible explanation for the noted discrepancies between the empirical evidence and the prediction of the traditional capital asset pricing model.