IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/reesec/v38y2010i4p733-752.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Ex‐Day Price Behavior of REITs: Taxes or Ticks?

Author

Listed:
  • Jeff Whitworth
  • David A. Carter

Abstract

Taxes and microstructure constraints are often cited as possible explanations for why stock prices drop by less than the dividend on their ex-dates. Using a sample of real estate investment trusts, which have no significant correlation between dividend size and yield, we find that close‐to‐open ex‐dividend price drops are related to dividend size as suggested by the microstructure models, but close‐to‐close price drops are related to dividend yield as predicted by the tax theory. These results imply that overnight price drops are primarily determined by microstructure, but that trading during the ex‐day causes prices to adjust to reflect individual tax preferences.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeff Whitworth & David A. Carter, 2010. "The Ex‐Day Price Behavior of REITs: Taxes or Ticks?," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 38(4), pages 733-752, Winter.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:reesec:v:38:y:2010:i:4:p:733-752
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/j.1540-6229.2010.00281.x
    Download Restriction: no

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David L. Ikenberry & James P. Weston, 2008. "Clustering in US Stock Prices after Decimalisation," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 14(1), pages 30-54.
    2. Elton, Edwin J & Gruber, Martin J, 1970. "Marginal Stockholder Tax Rates and the Clientele Effect," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 52(1), pages 68-74, February.
    3. Grinblatt, Mark S. & Masulis, Ronald W. & Titman, Sheridan, 1984. "The valuation effects of stock splits and stock dividends," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 461-490, December.
    4. Lakonishok, Josef & Vermaelen, Theo, 1986. "Tax-induced trading around ex-dividend days," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 287-319, July.
    5. William Hardin & Kartono Liano & Gow-Cheng Huang & Gregory Nagel, 2007. "REITs, Decimalization, and Ex-dividend Stock Prices," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 34(4), pages 499-511, May.
    6. Eades, Kenneth M. & Hess, Patrick J. & Kim, E. Han, 1984. "On interpreting security returns during the ex-dividend period," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 3-34, March.
    7. Frank, Murray & Jagannathan, Ravi, 1998. "Why do stock prices drop by less than the value of the dividend? Evidence from a country without taxes," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 161-188, February.
    8. Michaely, Roni, 1991. " Ex-dividend Day Stock Price Behavior: The Case of the 1986 Tax Reform Act," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(3), pages 845-859, July.
    9. Jakob, Keith J. & Ma, Tongshu, 2007. "Are ex[hyphen (true graphic)]day dividend clientele effects dead? Dividend yield versus dividend size," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(5), pages 718-735, December.
    10. John R. Graham & Roni Michaely & Michael R. Roberts, 2003. "Do Price Discreteness and Transactions Costs Affect Stock Returns? Comparing Ex-Dividend Pricing before and after Decimalization," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(6), pages 2611-2636, December.
    11. Brooks, LeRoy D & Edwards, Charles E, 1980. "Marginal Stockholders and Implied Tax Rates," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 62(4), pages 616-619, November.
    12. Bhardwaj, Ravinder K & Brooks, LeRoy D, 1999. "Further Evidence on Dividend Yields and the Ex-Dividend Day Stock Price Effect," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 22(4), pages 503-514, Winter.
    13. Jakob, Keith & Ma, Tongshu, 2004. "Tick size, NYSE rule 118, and ex-dividend day stock price behavior," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(3), pages 605-625, June.
    14. Ravinder K. Bhardwaj & LeRoy D. Brooks, 1999. "Further Evidence On Dividend Yields And The Ex-Dividend Day Stock Price Effect," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 22(4), pages 503-514, December.
    15. Jeff Whitworth & Ramesh P. Rao, 2010. "Do Tax Law Changes Influence Ex-Dividend Stock Price Behavior? Evidence from 1926 to 2005," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 39(1), pages 419-445, March.
    16. Koski, Jennifer Lynch, 1996. "A Microstructure Analysis of Ex-dividend Stock Price Behavior before and after the 1984 and 1986 Tax Reform Acts," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 69(3), pages 313-338, July.
    17. William G. Hardin III & Kartono Liano & Gow-cheng Huang, 2002. "The Ex-Dividend Pricing of REITs," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 30(4), pages 533-549.
    18. Lamdin, Douglas J & Hiemstra, Craig, 1993. "Ex-dividend Day Share Price Behavior: Effects of the Tax Reform Act of 1986," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 75(4), pages 778-783, November.
    19. Merton H. Miller & Franco Modigliani, 1961. "Dividend Policy, Growth, and the Valuation of Shares," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34, pages 411-411.
    20. Ashok J. Robin, 1991. "The Impact of the 1986 Tax Reform Act on Ex-Dividend Day Returns," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 20(1), Spring.
    21. Li, Oliver Zhen & Weber, David P., 2009. "Taxes and Ex-Dividend Day Returns: Evidence From REITs," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 62(4), pages 657-676, December.
    22. David A. Dubofsky, 1992. "A Market Microstructure Explanation of Ex-Day Abnormal Returns," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 21(4), Winter.
    23. Miller, Merton H & Scholes, Myron S, 1982. "Dividends and Taxes: Some Empirical Evidence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 90(6), pages 1118-1141, December.
    24. Lakonishok, Josef & Vermaelen, Theo, 1983. " Tax Reform and Ex-Dividend Day Behavior," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 38(4), pages 1157-1179, September.
    25. Barclay, Michael J., 1987. "Dividends, taxes, and common stock prices : The ex-dividend day behavior of common stock prices before the income tax," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 31-44, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:reesec:v:38:y:2010:i:4:p:733-752. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Wiley-Blackwell Digital Licensing) or (Christopher F. Baum). General contact details of provider: http://edirc.repec.org/data/areueea.html .

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.