The Journal of Finance publishes leading research across all the major fields of finance. It is one of the most widely cited journals in academic finance, and in all of economics. Each of the six issues per year reaches over 8,000 academics, finance professionals, libraries, and government and financial institutions around the world. The journal is the official publication of The American Finance Association, the premier academic organization devoted to the study and promotion of knowledge about financial economics.
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Search results: 4.
Can Taxes Shape an Industry? Evidence from the Implementation of the “Amazon Tax”
Published: 04/20/2018 | DOI: 10.1111/jofi.12687
BRIAN BAUGH, ITZHAK BEN‐DAVID, HOONSUK PARK
For years, online retailers have maintained a price advantage over brick‐and‐mortar retailers by not collecting sales tax at the time of sale. Recently, several states have required that online retailer Amazon collect sales tax during checkout. Using transaction‐level data, we document that households living in these states reduced their Amazon purchases by 9.4% following the implementation of the sales tax laws, implying elasticities of –1.2 to –1.4. The effect is stronger for large purchases, where purchases declined by 29.1%, corresponding to an elasticity of –3.9. Studying competitors in the electronics field, we find some evidence of substitution toward competing retailers.
Do ETFs Increase Volatility?
Published: 09/22/2018 | DOI: 10.1111/jofi.12727
ITZHAK BEN‐DAVID, FRANCESCO FRANZONI, RABIH MOUSSAWI
Due to their low trading costs, exchange‐traded funds (ETFs) are a potential catalyst for short‐horizon liquidity traders. The liquidity shocks can propagate to the underlying securities through the arbitrage channel, and ETFs may increase the nonfundamental volatility of the securities in their baskets. We exploit exogenous changes in index membership and find that stocks with higher ETF ownership display significantly higher volatility. ETF ownership increases the negative autocorrelation in stock prices. The increase in volatility appears to introduce undiversifiable risk in prices because stocks with high ETF ownership earn a significant risk premium of up to 56 basis points monthly.
The Politics of Foreclosures
Published: 09/22/2018 | DOI: 10.1111/jofi.12725
SUMIT AGARWAL, GENE AMROMIN, ITZHAK BEN‐DAVID, SERDAR DINC
The U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee considered many important banking reforms in 2009 to 2010. We show that, during this period, foreclosure starts on delinquent mortgages were delayed in the districts of committee members although there was no difference in delinquency rates between committee and noncommittee districts. In these areas, banks delayed the foreclosure starts by 0.5 months (relative to the 12‐month average). The estimated cost of delay to lenders is an order of magnitude greater than the campaign contributions by the political action committees of the largest mortgage servicing banks to the committee members in that period.
Do Hedge Funds Manipulate Stock Prices?
Published: 05/13/2013 | DOI: 10.1111/jofi.12062
ITZHAK BEN‐DAVID, FRANCESCO FRANZONI, AUGUSTIN LANDIER, RABIH MOUSSAWI
We provide evidence suggesting that some hedge funds manipulate stock prices on critical reporting dates. Stocks in the top quartile of hedge fund holdings exhibit abnormal returns of 0.30% on the last day of the quarter and a reversal of 0.25% on the following day. A significant part of the return is earned during the last minutes of trading. Analysis of intraday volume and order imbalance provides further evidence consistent with manipulation. These patterns are stronger for funds that have higher incentives to improve their ranking relative to their peers.