Build America Bonds

Andrew Ang, Vineer Bhansali, Yuhang Xing

NBER Working Paper No. 16008
Issued in May 2010
NBER Program(s):Asset Pricing, Public Economics

Build America Bonds (BABs) are a new form of municipal financing introduced in 2009. Investors in BAB municipal bonds receive interest payments that are taxable, but issuers receive a subsidy from the U.S. Treasury. The BAB program has succeeded in lowering the cost of funding for state and local governments with BAB issuers obtaining finance 54 basis points lower, on average, compared to issuing regular municipal bonds. For institutional investors, BAB issue yields are 116 basis points higher than comparable Treasuries and 88 basis points higher than comparable highly rated corporate bonds. For individual investors, BABs have lower yields than regular municipal bonds. Thus, on average the Federal government subsidy disadvantages individual U.S. taxpayers, who are the main holders of municipal bonds, and benefits new entrants in the municipal bond market.

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Acknowledgments

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Document Object Identifier (DOI): 10.3386/w16008

Published: “Build America Bonds,” with Vi neer Bhansali and Yuhang Xing, 2010, Journal of Fixed Income , 20, 1, 67-73.

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