This paper offers an alternative explanation for the on-the-run/off-the-run phenomena in T-securities, namely, the concentration of trade in recent issues, cost-of-trading differential and price differential between recent issue and earlier – issued bonds.We claim that optimizing the...

New theories have emerged over the past 10 years that reveal CEFs to be an important and efficient organizational device. This review surveys the old and current literature on closed-end funds (CEFs) in general and theories of discounts in particular. Among the topics reviewed are liquidity...

In a recent article in this Review, Robert McCormick, William Shughart, and Robert Tollison (1984) addressed the issue of monopoly deregulation. The authors put forward the provocative idea that "because under most conditions Tullock costs cannot be recouped, the returns to deregulation are...

This survey deals with the literature on closed-end funds (CEFs) in general and theories of discounts in particular. New theories have emerged over the past 10 years that reveal CEFs to be an important and efficient organizational device. Among the topics reviewed are liquidity transformation,...

This paper revisits the relative pricing of Palm and 3Com shares in 2000. We offer a simple rational explanation of the Palm/3Com price relationship before Palm's spinoff is completed. Lending fees and spin-off uncertainty are crucially important to understanding the relative levels and...

This paper offers a new theory of IPO underpricing. The existing theories disregard a basic asymmetry in the IPO contract : the underwriter will lose in case of an unfavorable demand for the new issue but will not benefit from favorable demand for that issue as she (by regulation) has to sell...

An explanation is provided for the following seemingly unrelated pieces of evidence concerning unions and pension plans in the United States: 1) The pension wealth of union members is greater than that of other workers, but 2) union pension plans are more often underfunded and 3) more likely to...

This paper offers a new explanation to the closed-end funds' puzzles. It is driven by two observations: the fact the closed-end fund is a public company with a guaranteed, long-term annual compensation for Fund's entrenched management; and the assumption (acceptable within classical...