Topic: Heterogeneous Taxes and Limited Risk Sharing: Evidence from Municipal Bonds

Speaker: Christian T. Lundblad, Professor of Finance, Kenan-Flagler Business School, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Date: October 11th (Wednesday)

Time: 10:00-11:30am

Location: Building 4, Room 101

Language: English

Abstract:

Heterogeneity in the taxation of asset returns can create ownership clienteles. Using a simple model, we demonstrate that an important consequence of tax-induced ownership segmentation is to limit risk-sharing, creating regions of the aggregate demand curve for the asset that are downward-sloping. As a result, the constraints of the ownership clientele impact the asset price response to variations in asset supply, and make the asset’s price more sensitive to movements in idiosyncratic risk. We test these predictions on U.S. municipal bonds, where cross-state variation in state tax privilege results in different levels of in-state ownership. In states with high tax-induced ownership segmentation, we find greater susceptibility of municipal bond yields to supply variation and heightened sensitivity of muni yields to local political uncertainty.   

About the speaker:

Christian Lundblad is the Edward M. O'Herron Distinguished Scholar and Professor of Finance and the Associate Dean of the Ph.D. Program at the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School.  He is also the Director of Research at the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise and the Director of the Center for Excellence in Investment Management. His research spans asset pricing, investment management, and international finance, with a specialization in emerging market development. His research has been published in top academic journals such as the Journal of Finance, the Review of Financial Studies, and the Journal of Financial Economics.  He served as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Finance, and now serves at the Journal of Banking and Finance and Financial Management. 

He received a PhD in financial economics and a master’s degree in economics from Duke University. He earned his BA in economics and English literature with highest honors from Washington University in St. Louis.