tailieunhanh - Open-end mutual funds and capital-gains taxes

This consensus on the achievements and weaknesses of social funds was based, among other things, on the differences between social funds that are created and operate within an emer- gency context and those that are governed by developmental objectives. Regional and cultural contexts also account for the diverse challenges, constraints, and opportunities that each pro- gram faces. Recognition of diversity was assumed as the basis for the collective agreement on future directions. | ELSEVIER Journal of Financial Economics 49 1998 3-43 JOURNALOF Financial ECONOMICS Open-end mutual funds and capital-gains taxes 1 Michael J. Barclay Neil D. Pearson Michael S. Weisbach a Simon School of Business University of Rochester Rochester NY 14627 USA University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Champaign IL 61820 USA University of Arizona Tucson AZ 85721 USA Received 30 August 1994 received in revised form 3 November 1997 Abstract Despite the fact that taxable investors would prefer to defer the realization of capital gains indefinitely most open-end mutual funds regularly realize and distribute a large portion of their gains. We present a model in which unrealized gains in the fund s portfolio increase expected future taxable distributions and thus increase the present value of a new investor s tax liability. In equilibrium managers interested in attracting new investors pass through taxable capital gains to reduce the overhang of unrealized gains. This model contains a number of empirical predictions that are consistent with data on actual fund overhangs. 1998 Elsevier Science . All rights reserved. JEL classification G23 Keywords Mutual funds Capital-gains taxes Corresponding author. Tel. 716 275-3916 fax 716 242-9554 e-mail barclay@. 1 We would like to thank Morningstar Inc. for providing the data used in this paper and Jim Brickley Andrew Christie Bruce Hansen Ludger Hentschel Jeff Pontiff Jim Poterba Peter Tufano David Weisbach and seminar participants at the University of Alberta University of Arizona Boston College University of Chicago University of Illinois University of California at Irvine University of Michigan NBER University of North Carolina Penn State University Princeton University University of Rochester University of Southern California and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania for helpful comments. The Bradley Center for Policy Research NSF Grant SBR-9616675 and the Q-Group provided financial .