The performance of stock prices during breaks in trading has received considerable attention in recent years. While some studies focus on performance surrounding periods of unscheduled trading breaks (trading halts in individual stocks, circuit breakers for exchanges), other studies look at...

The Traditional View of municipal investment holds that the federal tax-exemption of interest payments by state and local (municipal) governments provides a capital cost subsidy to municipal investment. Recently a New View has emerged which argues that tax-exemption plays a minor role, if any,...

The traditional view of municipal finance holds that the federal tax-exemption of interest payments by state and local (municipal) governments provides a capital cost subsidy to municipal investment equal to the difference between interest rates on taxable and tax-exempt bonds. Recently, a new...

This article assesses recent changes in the structure of the municipal bond market. It reviews the tax legislation, judicial interpretations, and other factors that affect the yield on municipal bonds. These factors are then employed in a statistical analysis of the determinants of municipal...

Investors can participate in the returns on the Standard and Poor's 500 composite index in a variety of ways, and these alternatives exist because they differ in important respects. This article assesses one dimension of these differences-margin requirements. ; Focusing on equity-related...

Over the years, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System has established margin regulations to limit purpose loans by banks and nonbanks to broker-dealers or other borrowers. In this study, the author reviews those regulations affecting security lending by banks and nonbanks. He...

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System establishes initial margin requirements under Regulations T, U, and X. Recent margin loan increases, both in aggregate value and relative to market capitalization, have rekindled the debate about using margin requirements as an instrument to...

Since the mid 1980s the mutual fund industry has enjoyed explosive growth in the number of funds, the types of funds available, and total assets under management. Much of this growth is the result of the increasing convenience offered to owners of long-term assets. Mutual funds offer portfolio...

Perhaps the most widely held view of the Crash of 1987 is the Cascade Theory: the Crash emerged from the interaction of stock prices with new financial strategies such as program trading and portfolio insurance, which use new financial instruments including stock index options and futures....

Trading volume and open interest in options and futures contracts on stock indices, equities, and interest rate instruments traded on world exchanges have experienced remarkable growth. However, this growth has been accompanied by controversy about the proper role of financial derivatives and...