Premium
The Pricing of Tax‐Exempt Bonds and the Miller Hypothesis
Author(s) -
TRZCINKA CHARLES
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
the journal of finance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 18.151
H-Index - 299
eISSN - 1540-6261
pISSN - 0022-1082
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-6261.1982.tb03588.x
Subject(s) - taxable income , miller , economics , tax rate , bond , monetary economics , econometrics , financial economics , accounting , finance , ecology , biology
This paper reports a new test of two competing theories of the relation between tax‐exempt and taxable interest rates. The Miller hypothesis predicts that the tax‐exempt rate is 52 percent of the taxable rate, while the institutional demand hypothesis predicts a volatile relationship. The tests in this paper employ a random intercept model to control for the risk of average interest rates. The results favor the Miller hypothesis. Marginal tax rates are found to be close to Miller's predicted 48 percent. The relationship is not influenced by relative demand or supply and the marginal tax rate appears stable over time.