Search Results
Journal Article
The practice of central banking in other industrialized countries
Central banks in larger industrialized countries increasingly favor market operations, the buying and selling of securities, over standing facilities, such as lending and deposit facilities, in conducting their monetary policies. In their market operations, foreign central banks most commonly trade securities issued or guaranteed by their governments and repurchase agreements that are backed by a variety of assets, including private securities and securities denominated in foreign currencies. Some also trade in securities that are issued by other governments or private securities that are ...
Discussion Paper
The taxation of equity, dividends, and stock prices
The Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 (JGTRRA) essentially halved the tax rate on dividends and reduced the top tax rate on capital gains. This paper explores the likely effect of JGTRRA on the composition of returns on corporations? common stock. Both larger corporations? past behavior and theory suggest that the recent tax cuts are not likely to increase dividend payouts significantly. Instead, in the short run, dividends will continue to rise in the customary way in response to the recovery in earnings. In the longer run, the tax cuts will principally reduce companies? ...
Journal Article
The roles of debt and equity in financing corporate investments
Working Paper
The capitalization and portfolio risk of insurance companies
The enormous growth in both Social Security and private pension plans has stimulated much interest in the impact of these retirement programs on individual saving behavior and the level of national saving. The first issue is the extent to which employees covered by pension plans reduce their own direct saving in response to expected retirement benefits; the response of individuals to guaranteed retirement income will determine, to a large extent, their well-being in retirement. For a nation concerned about saving and capital formation, the second issue is the impact of collectivized ...
Working Paper
Economic rents, the demand for capital, and financial structure
The correspondence between the demand for capital and various measures of the return on assets, the cost of capital, and Tobin?s q often is tenuous (Abel and Blanchard 1986; Hayashi 1982), at times even perverse. Of a variety of possible explanations, this paper considers the consequences of allowing for declining returns to capital--a declining marginal efficiency of capital schedule (MEC). This modification not only relaxes the connection between the demand for capital and many of its traditional determinants, but it also may introduce a connection among the value of the firm, its financial ...
Working Paper
Deposit insurance, capital requirements, and financial stability
This paper assesses the effects of insurance and capital requirements on assets' equilibrium returns in a capital-asset-pricing model in which intermediaries possess better information than the public about the yields on a set of assets. Equilibrium returns depend on two risk premiums that intermediaries incur on their liabilities: an explicit premium that reflects the public's view of the risks inherent in intermediaries' assets and an implicit premium that reflects intermediaries' risk of losing a share of their rent by leveraging their capital. Insurance reduces intermediaries' cost of ...
Journal Article
Profits and stock prices: the importance of being earnest
While the prospect for equity values naturally concerns traders and investors, it also is a concern for public policy. Because investors wealth depends on the value of corporate equity, the demand for consumption goods can vary with the price of stocks. The valuation of corporations productive assets on stock exchanges also influences businesses willingness and ability to undertake new investments. If the falling price of stocks should retard the pace of capital formation in the future, it also would retard the potential growth of output and living standards. ; This article examines the ...
Journal Article
Financial innovation and standards for the capital of insurance companies
Since their inception, insurance companies, banks, and other financial institutions have played prominent roles in our capital markets. These intermediaries have fostered saving and investment by issuing liabilities that appeal to savers in order to purchase the obligations of investors on attractive terms. Among financial intermediaries, life insurance companies traditionally have distinguished themselves by attracting long-term savings and by providing long-term financing for investment in real estate and durable equipment by businesses.> This article reviews the distinctive features of ...