Title

Municipal bonds and tax arbitrage: A cointegration analysis

Authors

Authors

H. Y. Kim; J. Lee; S. E. Lile;J. R. Ramsey

Abbreviated Journal Title

Public Financ. Rev.

Keywords

UNIT-ROOT; TIME-SERIES; HYPOTHESIS; MODELS; YIELDS; TESTS; VECTORS; MARKET; Business, Finance

Abstract

This article presents a new cointegration approach to test a tax arbitrage opportunity in holding municipal bonds. Noticing that the variables of interest are nonstationary, two alternative cointegration tests are used to examine the relationship that may exist (1) between the yield on municipal bonds and the after-raw yield on corporate bonds and (2) between the explicit mu rate on corporate bonds and the implicit tar rate on municipal bonds. Previous studies do not rake into account the time-series properties of the variables involved, assuming tacitly that they are stationary. Weekly bond yield data together with New Jersey and federal income tar rates are used, and various unit root and cointegration tests are employed to test for stationarity and for cointegration between the variables. The evidence fails to support the tar arbitrage hypothesis.

Journal Title

Public Finance Review

Volume

28

Issue/Number

4

Publication Date

1-1-2000

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

372

Last Page

389

WOS Identifier

WOS:000087985800005

ISSN

0048-5853

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