Build America Bonds (BABs) were issued by states and municipalities for twenty months as an alternative to tax-exempt bonds. The program was part of the 2009 fi scal stimulus package. The bonds are taxable to the holder, but the federal Treasury rebates 35% of the coupon payment to the issuer....

Should legislation ban the negotiated sales of municipal bonds? What are the costs of forcing public auctions? We compare the offering yields of local governments that are forced by state law to use public auctions to the offering yields of local governments that can choose between auctions and...

We investigate the impact of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 on the relative pricing of U.S. Treasury bonds. We obtain positive, statistically and economically significant estimates for the implicit tax rates of a "representative" investor in the late 1970's and early 1980's. After the 1986 Tax...