IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbfina/v32y2008i6p1133-1149.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Liquidity, default, taxes, and yields on municipal bonds

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Junbo
  • Wu, Chunchi
  • Zhang, Frank X.

Abstract

We examine the effects of liquidity, default and personal taxes on the relative yields of Treasuries and municipals using a generalized model with liquidity risk. The municipal yield model includes liquidity as a state factor. Using a unique transaction dataset, we estimate the liquidity risk of municipals and its effect on bond yields. Empirical evidence shows that municipal bond yields are strongly affected by all three factors. The effects of default and liquidity risk on municipal yields increase with maturity and credit risk. Liquidity premium accounts for about 9-13% of municipal yields for AAA bonds, 9-15% for AA/A bonds and 8-19% for BBB bonds. A substantial portion of the maturity spread between long- and short-maturity municipal bonds is attributed to the liquidity premium. Ignoring the liquidity risk effect thus results in a severe underestimation of municipal bond yields. Conditional on the effects of default and liquidity risk, we obtain implicit tax rates very close to the statutory tax rates of high-income individuals and institutional investors. Furthermore, these implicit income tax rates are quite stable across bonds of different maturities. Results show that including liquidity risk in the municipal bond pricing model helps explain the muni puzzle.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Junbo & Wu, Chunchi & Zhang, Frank X., 2008. "Liquidity, default, taxes, and yields on municipal bonds," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 1133-1149, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:32:y:2008:i:6:p:1133-1149
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378-4266(07)00294-4
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Trzcinka, Charles A, 1982. "The Pricing of Tax-Exempt Bonds and the Miller Hypothesis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 37(4), pages 907-923, September.
    2. Kidwell, David S & Koch, Timothy W, 1983. "Market Segmentation and the Term Structure of Municipal Yields," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 15(1), pages 40-55, February.
    3. Francis A. Longstaff & Sanjay Mithal & Eric Neis, 2005. "Corporate Yield Spreads: Default Risk or Liquidity? New Evidence from the Credit Default Swap Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(5), pages 2213-2253, October.
    4. Sheen X. Liu & Howard Qi & Chunchi Wu, 2006. "Personal Taxes, Endogenous Default, and Corporate Bond Yield Spreads," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(6), pages 939-954, June.
    5. Yawitz, Jess B & Maloney, Kevin J & Ederington, Louis H, 1985. "Taxes, Default Risk, and Yield Spreads," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(4), pages 1127-1140, September.
    6. Pastor, Lubos & Stambaugh, Robert F., 2003. "Liquidity Risk and Expected Stock Returns," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 111(3), pages 642-685, June.
    7. Amihud, Yakov & Mendelson, Haim, 1986. "Asset pricing and the bid-ask spread," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 223-249, December.
    8. Wu, Chunchi, 1991. "A Certainty Equivalent Approach to Municipal Bond Default Risk Estimation," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 14(3), pages 241-247, Fall.
    9. George M. CONSTANTINIDES & Jonathan E. INGERSOLL Jr., 2005. "Optimal Bond Trading With Personal Taxes," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Sudipto Bhattacharya & George M Constantinides (ed.), Theory Of Valuation, chapter 6, pages 165-206, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    10. Amihud, Yakov, 2002. "Illiquidity and stock returns: cross-section and time-series effects," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 31-56, January.
    11. Liu, Sheen & Shi, Jian & Wang, Junbo & Wu, Chunchi, 2007. "How much of the corporate bond spread is due to personal taxes?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(3), pages 599-636, September.
    12. Amihud, Yakov & Mendelson, Haim, 1991. "Liquidity, Maturity, and the Yields on U.S. Treasury Securities," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(4), pages 1411-1425, September.
    13. Brennan, Michael J. & Subrahmanyam, Avanidhar, 1996. "Market microstructure and asset pricing: On the compensation for illiquidity in stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 441-464, July.
    14. Ang, James & Peterson, David & Peterson, Pamela, 1985. "Marginal Tax Rates: Evidence from Nontaxable Corporate Bonds: A Note," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(1), pages 327-332, March.
    15. Poterba, James M., 1989. "Tax reform and the market for tax-exempt debt," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 537-562, August.
    16. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:2:p:899-931 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Zimmerman, Jl, 1977. "Municipal Accounting Maze - Analysis Of Political Incentives," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15, pages 107-155.
    18. Chunchi Wu, 1991. "A Certainty Equivalent Approach To Municipal Bond Default Risk Estimation," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 14(3), pages 241-247, September.
    19. Skelton, Jeffrey L, 1983. "Relative Risk in Municipal and Corporate Debt," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 38(2), pages 625-634, May.
    20. Chalmers, John M R, 1998. "Default Risk Cannot Explain the Muni Puzzle: Evidence from Municipal Bonds That Are Secured by U.S. Treasury Obligations," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 11(2), pages 281-308.
    21. Stock, Duane, 1994. "Term structure effects on default risk premia and the relationship of default-risky tax-exempt yields to risk-free taxable yields -- a note," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 1185-1203, December.
    22. Green, Richard C, 1993. "A Simple Model of the Taxable and Tax-Exempt Yield Curves," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 6(2), pages 233-264.
    23. In Joon Kim & Krishna Ramaswamy & Suresh Sundaresan, 1993. "Does Default Risk in Coupons Affect the Valuation of Corporate Bonds?: A Contingent Claims Model," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 22(3), Fall.
    24. Brennan, Michael J. & Chordia, Tarun & Subrahmanyam, Avanidhar, 1998. "Alternative factor specifications, security characteristics, and the cross-section of expected stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 345-373, September.
    25. Lawrence E. Harris & Michael S. Piwowar, 2006. "Secondary Trading Costs in the Municipal Bond Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(3), pages 1361-1397, June.
    26. David Bolder & David Stréliski, 1999. "Yield Curve Modelling at the Bank of Canada," Technical Reports 84, Bank of Canada.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Junbo Wang & Chunchi Wu & Frank X. Zhang, 2005. "Liquidity, default, taxes and yields on municipal bonds," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2005-35, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    2. Lin, Hai & Wang, Junbo & Wu, Chunchi, 2011. "Liquidity risk and expected corporate bond returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(3), pages 628-650, March.
    3. Goldstein, Michael A. & Namin, Elmira Shekari, 2023. "Corporate bond liquidity and yield spreads: A review," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    4. Banti, Chiara & Phylaktis, Kate & Sarno, Lucio, 2012. "Global liquidity risk in the foreign exchange market," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 267-291.
    5. Yakov Amihud & Haim Mendelson, 2015. "The Pricing of Illiquidity as a Characteristic and as Risk," Multinational Finance Journal, Multinational Finance Journal, vol. 19(3), pages 149-168, September.
    6. Koch, Timothy W. & Stock, Duane, 1997. "An analysis of implied tax rates on long-term taxable and tax-exempt bonds," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 171-176, February.
    7. Subrahmanyam, Avanidhar, 2009. "The implications of liquidity and order flows for neoclassical finance," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 527-532, November.
    8. Ahn, Jungkyu, 2024. "Options illiquidity in an over-the-counter market," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    9. Chacko, George & Das, Sanjiv & Fan, Rong, 2016. "An index-based measure of liquidity," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 162-178.
    10. Andres, Christian & Cumming, Douglas & Karabiber, Timur & Schweizer, Denis, 2014. "Do markets anticipate capital structure decisions? — Feedback effects in equity liquidity," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 133-156.
    11. Thomas Luke Spreen & Ed Gerrish, 2022. "Taxes and tax‐exempt bonds: A literature review," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(4), pages 767-808, September.
    12. Peter Christoffersen & Ruslan Goyenko & Kris Jacobs & Mehdi Karoui, 2018. "Illiquidity Premia in the Equity Options Market," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(3), pages 811-851.
    13. Thomas Paul & Thomas Walther & André Küster-Simic, 2022. "Empirical analysis of the illiquidity premia of German real estate securities," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 36(2), pages 203-260, June.
    14. Lischewski, Judith & Voronkova, Svitlana, 2012. "Size, value and liquidity. Do They Really Matter on an Emerging Stock Market?," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 8-25.
    15. José Miralles Marcelo & María Miralles Quirós & José Miralles Quirós, 2004. "The Pricing of Systematic Liquidity Risk in Stock Markets," Notas Económicas, Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra, issue 20, pages 162-176, December.
    16. Favero, Carlo & Pagano, Marco & von Thadden, Ernst-Ludwig, 2010. "How Does Liquidity Affect Government Bond Yields?," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(1), pages 107-134, February.
    17. Matthew Spiegel & Xiaotong Wang, 2005. "Cross-sectional Variation in Stock Returns: Liquidity and Idiosyncratic Risk," Yale School of Management Working Papers amz2540, Yale School of Management, revised 01 Mar 2006.
    18. Agata Gniadkowska-Szymańska, 2021. "Liquidity of assets and liquidity of shares: the example of the Warsaw Stock Exchange," Bank i Kredyt, Narodowy Bank Polski, vol. 52(1), pages 1-22.
    19. Chordia, Tarun & Sarkar, Asani & Subrahmanyam, Avanidhar, 2005. "The Joint Dynamics of Liquidity, Returns, and Volatility Across Small and Large Firms," University of California at Los Angeles, Anderson Graduate School of Management qt6z81z2wc, Anderson Graduate School of Management, UCLA.
    20. Kim, Soon-Ho & Lee, Kuan-Hui, 2014. "Pricing of liquidity risks: Evidence from multiple liquidity measures," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 112-133.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:32:y:2008:i:6:p:1133-1149. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbf .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.