Journal of Economic Perspectives · 2025 · John M. Griffin、Nicholas Hirschey、Samuel Kruger
中文摘要
市政债券市场在为美国市政当局提供资本方面发挥着关键作用，其运作依托于由承销商、市政顾问、信用评级机构、保险公司、个人与机构投资者以及多个监管机构构成的网络。许多市场参与者之间存在显著的信息不对称和相互冲突的激励结构，这有时会导致迥异且看似低效的结果。学术文献中记录的谜题包括：高昂的承销成本、市政顾问的角色冲突、极端且差异巨大的交易加价、通常不具有税收效率的投资持有、不一致的隐含边际税率、对信用评级的高度依赖、保险收益很小却被广泛使用、赎回条款的延迟使用，以及会计信息处理的不一致。我们综述了市政债券市场中的问题，并提出了可实施的建议，希望这些建议能够为纳税人和投资者带来一个更具竞争性且成本更低的市场。
Abstract
The municipal bond market plays a crucial role in providing capital to US municipalities and functions through a network of underwriters, municipal advisors, credit rating agencies, insurers, individual and institutional investors, and multiple regulators. Many of these market participants have significant asymmetric information and conflicting incentive structures, which can sometimes lead to disparate and seemingly inefficient outcomes. Puzzles documented in the academic literature include high underwriting costs, conflicting roles by municipal advisors, extreme and widely varying trade markups, investment holdings that are often not tax-efficient, inconsistent implied marginal tax rates, a heavy reliance on credit ratings, little benefit but widespread use of insurance, delayed use of call provisions, and inconsistent treatment of accounting information. We review issues in the municipal bond market and propose implementable suggestions that would hopefully allow for a more competitive and low-cost market for both taxpayers and investors.