Lucy F. Ackert

Arbitrage and Valuation in the Market for Standard and Poor's Depositary Receipts

This paper examines pricing in the market for depositary receipts, securities designed to track the performance of a stock index that trade like shares of stock. Arbitrage costs are low because these assets have low fundamental risk, low transactions costs, and high dividend yields. We find that Standard and Poor’s Depositary Receipts (SPDRs), or spiders, do not trade at economically significant discounts, unlike closed-end mutual fund shares. Although individual investors invest much more heavily in SPDRs than in S&P500 stock, investor sentiment is not an important determinant of the discount. The SPDRs redemption feature facilitates arbitrage so that sophisticated traders can take advantage of and eliminate mispricing. However, we also report a larger, economically significant discount for MidCap SPDRs. MidCap SPDRs are designed to track the performance of the S&P MidCap 400 index, an index of moderate capitalization firms, and are expected to have higher arbitrage costs. Finally, we find that SPDRs and MidCap SPDRs returns are not excessively volatile, also unlike closed-end funds.

Social Preferences and Tax Policy Design: Some Experimental Evidence

This article reports the results of a set of experiments designed to examine whether a taste for fairness affects people’s preferred tax structure. Using the Fehr and Schmidt model, we devise a simple test for the presence of social preferences in voting for alternative tax structures. The experimental results show that individuals demonstrate concern for their own payoff and inequality aversion in choosing between alternative tax structures. However, concern for redistribution decreases as the deadweight loss from progressive taxation increases. Our findings have important implications for tax policy design. (JEL C92, D63, H21, H23)

Margin, Short Selling, and Lotteries in Experimental Asset Markets

The robustness of bubbles and crashes in markets for assets with finite lives is perplexing. This paper reports the results of experimental asset markets in which participants trade two assets. In some markets, price bubbles form. In these markets, traders pay higher prices for the asset with lottery characteristics (i.e., a claim on a large, unlikely payoff). However, institutional design has a significant impact on deviations in prices from fundamental values, particularly for an asset with lottery characteristics. Price run-ups and crashes are moderated when traders finance purchases of the assets themselves and are allowed to short sell.

Arbitrage, Liquidity, and the Valuation of Exchange Traded Funds

This paper investigates the performance of U.S. and country exchange traded funds currently traded in the United States and provides new insight into their pricing. While the U.S. funds are priced closely to their net asset values, the country funds are not and can exhibit large, positive autocorrelations in fund premium. The mispricing of country funds is related to momentum, illiquidity, and size effects. We also find an inverted U-shaped relationship between fund premium and market liquidity, which suggests that more active trading does lead to lower mispricing but only after a certain level of liquidity is reached.

Bubbles in Experimental Asset Markets: Irrational Exuberance No More

The robustness of bubbles and crashes in markets for finitely lived assets is perplexing. This paper reports the results of experimental asset markets in which participants trade two assets. In some markets, price bubbles form. In these markets, traders will pay even higher prices for the asset with lottery characteristics, i.e., a claim on a large, unlikely payoff. However, institutional design has a significant impact on deviations in prices from fundamental values, particularly for an asset with lottery characteristics. Price run-ups and crashes are moderated when traders finance purchases of the assets themselves and are allowed to short sell.

The asset allocation decision and investor heterogeneity: a puzzle?

Abstract This paper examines portfolio allocation decisions for a large sample of demographically diverse survey respondents in light of finance theory and the recommendations of financial advisors. We investigate whether asset allocation decisions vary for respondents who differ across several dimensions including gender, home ownership, age, net worth, and psychological orientation. Sample respondents’ decisions are consistent with popular advice and finance theory. We find that only age affects the mix of risky securities. When we consider the allocation of total portfolio assets to equity, all individual characteristics except age matter. Psychological orientation contributes to our ability to explain asset allocation decisions.

Information Opacity, Credit Risk, and the Design of Loan Contracts for Private Firms

This paper examines the structure and cost of a large sample of bank loans to private firms. Compared to public firms, private firms are more informationally opaque and riskier. The results suggest that the design of a loan to a private firm is significantly different from that to a public firm. Bank loans to private firms are more likely to be by a sole lender, collateralized, and have sweep covenants than loans to public firms. The cost of borrowing is higher for a private firm than for a public firm, even after holding constant firm and loan characteristics.

Tax Policy Design in the Presence of Social Preferences: Some Experimental Evidence

This paper reports the results of experiments designed to examine whether a taste for fairness affects peoples preferred tax structure. Building on the Fehr and Schmidt (1999) model, we devise a simple test for the presence of social preferences in voting for alternative tax structures. The experimental results show that individuals demonstrate concern for their own payoff and inequality aversion in choosing among alternative tax structures. However, concern for redistribution decreases when it leads to increasing deadweight losses. Our findings have important implications for the design of optimal tax theory.

Time-Varying Volatility in Canadian and U.S. Stock Index and Index Futures Markets: A Multivariate Analysis

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Stochastic trends and cointegration in the market for equities

We use a no-arbitrage, cost-of-carry pricing model to examine whether equity spot and futures markets are cointegrated. A stock index and its futures price should be cointegrated if the cost of carry is stationary. Otherwise, the appropriate cointegrating relationship is trivariate and includes the index, futures price, and cost of carry. We study the relationships among the Standard and Poors 500 index, associated index futures price series, and interest rate for January 4, 1988, through June 30, 1995, and find that all three series are nonstationary. We further find that the index and futures price are not cointegrated unless the cost of carry is included in the cointegrating relationship. Our findings are consistent with the no-arbitrage pricing model and do not appear to be sensitive to the presence of structural breaks in the series.