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When knowledge is power: Evidence from the municipal bond market

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  • Cuny, Christine

Abstract

I investigate whether access to fundamental information enhances retail investors’ bargaining power, reducing the premium that small municipal bond investors pay over large investors. I find a reduction in this small trade premium after the introduction of an online disclosure repository that lowers retail investors’ information acquisition costs. This finding is limited to issuers whose disclosures are disseminated through the repository. The finding is pronounced for issuers that impose high information acquisition costs on investors ex-ante and those that exhibit high disclosure quality ex-post. These results suggest that as investors’ information sets align, so does their bargaining power with dealers.

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  • Cuny, Christine, 2018. "When knowledge is power: Evidence from the municipal bond market," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 109-128.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jaecon:v:65:y:2018:i:1:p:109-128
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jacceco.2017.11.002
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Jacquelyn R. Gillette & Delphine Samuels & Frank S. Zhou, 2020. "The Effect of Credit Ratings on Disclosure: Evidence from the Recalibration of Moody's Municipal Ratings," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(3), pages 693-739, June.
    3. Farrell, Michael & Murphy, Dermot & Painter, Marcus & Zhang, Guangli, 2023. "The complexity yield puzzle: A textual analysis of municipal bond disclosures," Working Papers 338, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State.
    4. Jaskowski, Marcin & Rettl, Daniel A., 2023. "Information acquisition costs and credit spreads," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    5. Yulianti Abbas, 2022. "Financial statement timeliness and bond‐price dispersion in the municipal market," Public Budgeting & Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(1), pages 66-97, March.
    6. Ivanov, Ivan T. & Zimmermann, Tom & Heinrich, Nathan W., 2022. "Limits of disclosure regulation in the municipal bond market," CFR Working Papers 22-05, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    7. Meng Gao & Jiekun Huang & Itay GoldsteinEditor, 2020. "Informing the Market: The Effect of Modern Information Technologies on Information Production," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 33(4), pages 1367-1411.
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    11. deHaan, Ed & Li, Jiacui & Watts, Edward M., 2023. "Retail bond investors and credit ratings," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(1).
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Dealer markets; Municipal debt; Information asymmetry; Asymmetric bargaining power; Dissemination;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection

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