Non-Segmented Equilibria Under Differential Taxation: Evidence from the Canadian Government Bond Market

This paper investigates tax effects in the Canadian governmentbond market during the period 1964—1986. Unlike previousstudies, we apply both statistical and nonstatistical teststoanalyze clientele effects and market equilibria. The resultsdivide the sample into two distinct periods of time, with theend of 1976 marking the division. We find that tax effects arealmost nonexistent in the Canadian government bond market beforethe end of 1976, but are predominant in the post-1976 period.Non-segmented market equilibria cannot be rejected before 1977,but are strongly rejected after 1976. In fact, segmented equilibriawith clientele effects in both quantities and prices characterizethe entire five year period from 1982 to 1986. These findingsare consistent with tax reforms, government deficit financingand interest rate fluctuations in Canada during our sample period.     

Government Bond Market Seasonality, Diversification, and Cointegration: International Evidence

Using government bond market data for the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Japan, I investigate several hypotheses. Market efficiency is investigated by testing for seasonality and cointegration. The seasonality results are mixed. In regression tests, a January effect is detected in several markets (United States, Germany, France, United Kingdom, and Canada) using local currencies. However, in a nonparametric test, the January effect is supported only for France. When U.S. dollar returns are used, regression results also reveal a January effect for several markets (United States, Germany, France, and United Kingdom). These results are not confirmed by a nonparametric test. Correlation analysis shows considerable diversification opportunities for short‐term investors. Cointegration tests indicate that several of the markets share cointegrating vectors, increasing the possibilities of using other endogenous bond markets to better predict movements in a particular market.     

Capital Gains Taxation and Stock Market Activity: Evidence from IPOs

Prior to the Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA '86), long-term capital gains were taxed at a lower rate than short-term gains, presenting investors with an opportunity to increase their after-tax return by delaying the sale of appreciated assets until after they qualified for long-term status and selling depreciated assets prior to long-term qualification. Using a sample of Initial Public Offerings, I find that stocks that appreciated prior to long-term qualification exhibit increased volume and decreased returns just after their qualification date, while stocks that depreciated prior to long-term qualification exhibit these effects just prior to their qualification date.     

Capital Market Equilibrium with Differential Taxation

This paper studies the effect of investor-specific differentialdividend taxation on the dynamics of equilibrium security pricesand allocations. In order to deal with the inherent Paretoinefficiency of such an equilibrium as well as the preclusion oftax arbitrage, we construct a continuous-time equilibrium via arepresentative investor with state-dependent utility. Investorsdiffer in their pricing of risk, inducing investor-specificconsumption-based CAPMs, with differential taxation appearing asan additional factor. The interest rate, stock price, andconsumption dynamics are also impacted. Under logarithmicpreferences, risk is transferred from the higher-taxed to thelower-taxed investor, and the interest rate decreases tocounteract extra precautionary savings against this suboptimallyshared risk. Numerical analysis reveals further tax rate,time-to-horizon, and dividend risk effects on equilibriumquantities. For most wealth allocations, the stock returnvolatility is increased above the no-tax benchmark.     

The Pricing of Audit Services: Further Evidence from the Canadian Market

Since the seminal work of Simunic (1980), many studies have investigated audit pricing, competition in the audit industry, product differentiation and audit cost functions. This study expands on the work done to date by examining Canadian audit fees across time, audit firm and industry. The observations of audit fee data span the period of time during which the provincial codes of professional ethics with respect to fee tenders and advertising in general were relaxing in Canada. The results reported in this study support the existence of differentiated audit services in the Canadian audit market, and are consistent with DeAngelo's (1981) size interpretation of audit quality. Although no significant differences in the pricing of audit services across time are detected, the data provide evidence of significant pricing differences across (pre-merger) Big Eight audit firms in the small auditee market, suggesting that treating these audit firms as a homogeneous group in future research may not be appropriate. These inter-firm pricing differences do not appear to be due to the potential confounding effects of the auditee's industry. In contrast to previous studies, a significant positive association between internal and external audit costs is observed, suggesting a complementary, rather than a substitute, relationship.     

Stock Returns Under High Inflation and Interest Rates: Evidence from the Brazilian Market

We analyze the relationship of high inflation and interest rates with stock returns in Brazil from May 1986 to May 2011, during which Brazil experienced subperiods of both high inflation (May 1986-June 1994) and relative monetary stability (July 1994-May 2011). The result in the total period is dominated by high inflation volatility, and the findings suggest a bidirectional relationship between stock returns and inflation. During the high-inflation subperiod, interest rates are relevant to explain future changes in inflation and stock returns. Under low inflation, movements in interest rates are better anticipated by equity investors, suggesting higher market efficiency than in high-inflation circumstances.     

Does Auditor Quality and Tenure Matter to Investors? Evidence from the Bond Market

We examine the relation between auditor characteristics (quality and tenure) and the cost of debt financing. Consistent with the hypothesis that audit characteristics are important to the capital markets, we find that (1) auditor quality and tenure are negatively and significantly related to the cost of debt financing, (2) the relation between auditor characteristics and the cost of debt is most pronounced in firms with debt that is noninvestment grade, and (3) both the insurance and information role of audits are economically significant to the cost of debt. Overall, our results suggest that, through their dual roles of providing information and insurance, auditor quality and tenure matter to capital market participants.     

可分离债券——国债市场产品创新的重要一环

一、本息分离债券的基本概况: 本息分离债券,英文简称为STRIPS(Separate Trading Registered Interestand Principal Securities).本息分离债券经常被称为零息债券,但是,从严格意义上讲,它实际上是零息债券的衍生产品.在国际上,本息分离债券是近20年来债券市场很有意义的创新之一,它的设计简单,却是实现投资组合的收益目标、对冲所面临的市场风险以及构造各种复合金融产品的非常有用的工具.     

Convertible Bond Issues: Evidence from Security Markets

A convertible bond (CB) is a hybrid security containing elements of both common stock and straight debt. Still, empirical investigations on CB issue announcements have failed to discern any pattern in the stock market reaction that is consistent with announcements of either common equity or straight debt issues. This study shows that (a) motives for issuing the CB and (b) its rating (and to a less extent the riskiness of the issuing firm) help explain the stock market reaction to CB issue announcements. Specifically, announcement of a CB issue with an explicitly stated motive for the use of proceeds, when coupled with a high (low) bond rating, generates a stock market response similar to a straight debt (common stock) issue. On the other hand, the preference of CB holders is dictated by the motive for the use of proceeds and the conversion premium. These findings highlight the critical importance of the motive of issue in determining reactions in both the stock and bond markets.     

当前我国国债市场存在的主要问题及对策建议

内1981年重新恢复发行吲债至今,我国国债市场已历经了近30年的发展历程.目前,我国国债市场已初具规模,市场化程度不断提高,但与成熟市场同家相比还存在差距,在国债市场的法律基础和监管体系、一级市场、二级市场以及财政政策与货币政策在国债市场上的协调配合等方面都存在着亟待解决的问题.对此,笔者提出了加快出台<国债法>,明确国债市场的主管部门;扩大国债发行规模,提高发行频率,完善定价机制;建立统一互联的国债市场体系,提高二级市场流动性,推出相关金融衍生产品,促进国债收益率曲线的构建和完善;推进储蓄吲债的利率市场化,用国债取代央行票据作为中央银行公开市场操作的主要工具等政策建议.     

政府补助、研发支出与市场价值——来自创业板高新技术企业的经验证据

基于政治关联视角,本文以创业板高新技术企业为研究对象,讨论了政府补助、研发支出和市场价值三者的关系。研究发现,创业板的高新技术企业并没有有效地将政府给予的资源投入到技术研发上,政治关联尽管能给企业带来更多的政府补助,但却反而削弱了企业的研发创新能力,未能带来企业市场价值的提高,政府资源的配置存在严重的失效。     

Initial Evidence on the Role of Accounting Earnings in the Bond Market

We document that: (1) the incidence of bond trade increases during the days surrounding earnings announcements, (2) there is a bond‐price reaction to the announcement of earnings, and (3) there is a positive association between annual bond returns and both annual changes in earnings and annual analysts' forecast errors. All of these effects are larger when earnings convey bad news or when the underlying bond is more risky. Taken together, our results suggest that the nonlinear payoff structure of bond securities affects the role of accounting earnings in the bond market.     

Optimal Income Taxation and the Ability Distribution: Implications for Migration Equilibria

As recently argued by Diamond (1998), one of the key factors explaining the progressivity of an optimal non-linear income tax is the distribution of productivity among workers. Migration is one source of changes in the productivity distribution. How changes in the populations ability distribution affect optimal income tax schedules has received little attention. Changing the distribution generally affects both the objective function and the government budget constraint. We first consider the comparative statics of the fraction of highly-skilled workers with maximin and maximax welfare functions (so that only the second effect is present) and a quasi-linear utility function. We also present some results for a utilitarian social welfare function.We then study the interaction between mobility and redistributive taxation. We consider mobility by either the skilled or unskilled population under majority voting where governments take the population as fixed. If individuals choose to relocate independently, having identical ability distributions is always a stable equilibrium when the unskilled are the mobile group. However, this is not always the case when the skilled are mobile. If groups of individuals can choose where to locate, having identical ability distributions across regions is only an equilibrium when the mobile type has an overall majority.     

意大利国债续发行制度对我国的启示

与国外发达的政府债券市场相比,我国在通过续发行制度提高国债流动性、提高关键期限国债的市场地位、促进国债定价效率方面,还存在明显的不足。本文以意大利国债市场为分析对象,对其相关的续发行制度设计、国债期限安排、理论依据进行分析,指出我国国债市场存在流通期次过多、单期国债流通量过低的问题,并从国库现金管理、交易机制和投资者结构等方面,尝试为未来我国国债续发行制度框架提供有价值的建议。     

税负效应与除息日股票价格行为研究——来自A股市场的实证证据

本文基于我国A股市场相关数据对除息日股价行为的税负效应进行全面检验,实证结果表明股息和资本利得税率对除息日股价波动行为具有显著影响,税负效应理论存在于A股市场,但除息日股价波动行为不能完全由税负效应进行解释,另外实证研究还发现我国A股市场不存在税收诱导客户效应。     

Distance Still Matters: Evidence from Municipal Bond Underwriting

Using a sample of municipal bond offerings, I find that "local"investment banks have substantial comparative and absolute advantagesover nonlocal counterparts-–locals charge lower fees andsell bonds at lower yields. Local investment banks’ strongestcomparative advantage is at underwriting bonds with higher creditrisk and bonds not rated by rating agencies. These findingssuggest that high-risk bonds and nonrated bonds are more difficultto evaluate and market, and that investment banks with a localpresence are better able to assess "soft" information and placedifficult bond issues.     

Risk and Return Around Bond Rating Changes: New Evidence From the Spanish Stock Market

Abstract:  This study analyzes the effect of corporate bond rating changes on stock prices in the Spanish stock market. We explore their effects on excess of returns and systematic risk. Rating changes by Moody's, Standard and Poor's and FitchIBCA are analyzed. On an efficient market, these changes will only have some effect if they contain some new information or if they are associated to a redistribution of wealth between shareholders and bondholders. We use an extension of the event study dummy approach. Our results support the redistribution of wealth hypothesis in the abnormal returns behavior. We also find that changes in both directions cause a rebalancing effect in the total risk of the firm, with significant reductions on their systematic component.     

Benefits of Downward Earnings Management and Political Connection: Evidence from Government Subsidy and Market Pricing

This paper examines the role of downward earnings management and political connection on the receipt of government subsidies and market pricing of subsidies. Using subsidies data hand-collected from Chinese listed firms over the period 2004–2014, the results show a significantly positive association between downward earnings management and the receipt of government subsidies. The results also reveal that a firm's political connection is conducive to securing subsidies for poor performers, but not for good performers. Market pricing analyses demonstrate that share markets value subsidies positively in general, but the effect is ameliorated in firms conducting downward earnings management. No discernible difference is found between the market pricing of subsidies received by firms with political connections and those without.     

公开市场操作:国债与央行票据替代性分析

本文认为由于国债安全性高、收益稳定,尤其是短期国债具有期限短、变现性强、市场表现活跃等特点,符合公开市场操作的要求,理应成为央行公开市场操作的主流工具。目前,央行票据作为操作工具的局限性显现,国债具有的优势可弥补其局限。长远看,随着短期国债规模的扩大,央行票据将淡出,国债将成为公开市场操作的主流工具。但当前国情下,国债与央行票据短期内不可能完全替代,二者可能在一定时期内并存。     

Bond Market Development,Economic Growth and Other Macroeconomic Determinants: Panel VAR Evidence

This paper examines causal relationships between bond market development, economic growth and four other macroeconomic variables in 35 countries for the period 1993–2011. Bond market development is defined in terms of the significance and presence of public sector, private sector, and international bond issues. Additional covariates being considered are the inflation rate, the real effective exchange rate, the real interest rate, and a measure of openness to international trade. We use a panel vector auto-regression model to reveal the nature of Granger causality among these variables. Specifically, we find that bond market development and the four macroeconomic covariates may be long-run causative factors for economic growth. Thus, policy makers seeking to foster economic growth are warned to check multi-causal studies involving all these variables before setting their policies.