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Limits on the tax‐free amounts executives can set aside for retirement have led many companies to turn to nonqualified benefit plans.

This paper aims to identify gaps and critical issues in policy framework for infrastructure debt fund (IDF) to become financially viable in the Indian context. Growth of any economy is dependent on successful implementation of infrastructure projects. However, infrastructure development is linked to availability of equity and debt funds to finance these projects. IDF is an instrument which aims at enabling financing of infrastructure.

The exploratory research adopted is qualitative and based on secondary data related to infrastructure needs, challenges, factors influencing infrastructure financing and options available for infrastructure financing in the Indian context. It investigates the relationship between external factors, internal factors and viability of IDF and provides recommendations to policy makers to roll-out an enabling policy and regulatory environment.

Findings show that issues such as entry barriers for banks, insufficient tax incentives, restrictions on type of projects to be considered for funding and meeting the expectation of low-cost funds need to be addressed so that IDFs can contribute toward funding requirement of the infrastructure sector.

IDFs have been recently introduced in India and the use of primary and secondary data has been limited. Comparison of IDF guidelines in India with guidelines for similar instruments in developed countries has been left for a later stage.

Value of this study is that it identifies the issues in current guidelines of IDF through the understanding of the policy and regulatory framework that governs IDF. The study also makes recommendations to the government and regulators which would enable IDF to become a viable instrument.

This paper study regional attractiveness through passive portfolio investment based on duration, immunization and convexity (in case of higher interest rate volatility) of municipal bonds by using data from Standard and Poor’s. The massive variety of financial incentives to promote regional investment attractiveness is dependent on governmental strategy. Municipal bonds are the one of the most efficient ways of direct investments in the region, however, it is still a question of a good balance between a certain rate of return and an adequate risk. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the investment opportunities in municipal revenue bonds.

This study developed a model of investing using municipal bonds with the case of their immunization and analyze attractiveness of such investment. The theoretical model assumes a situation where the local government finances its capital projects through municipal revenue bonds. Such situations influence strongly on regional or local competitiveness provided by local government policy.

An analysis of the municipal bond market indicates that both municipal general and revenue bonds had stable and good level of yields to maturity in the past ten years. Their standard deviations were very low and in the past two years almost approached the level of standard deviations of treasury bonds. With the duration of 4–6 years on 5-year investment in municipal revenue bonds and their immunization, it is possible to provide good returns for investor.

The limitation of this study concerns theoretical situation where local government will use non-market-based policy to reduce the interest rates and that will influence on rise of municipal bond liquidity premium (price distortion). This situation will make municipality bonds less attractive for investing, especially because of lower liquidity on secondary market. Also, this model is applicable in regions that have developed financial markets.

This research suggests governments a sustainable framework to use municipal bonds as a strategy for capital targeting in regions.

This research is related to professional investors’ strategy with projects that have the highest investment potential; this is good way for an adequate allocation of resources (regional competitiveness).

This paper analyzes very rare subject involving local government strategy of finance and portfolio investment in municipal bonds. There is a huge gap in the literature on this issue. Also, this study provides the model that can be used as a case for higher local competitiveness.

This study investigates the impact of federal income tax rates and budget deficits on the nominal interest rate yield on high-grade municipal tax-free bonds (municipals) in the US. The 58-year study period covers the years 1959 through 2016 and thus is very recent.

The study develops a loanable funds model that allows for various financial market factors. Once developed, the model is estimated by autoregressive two-stage least squares, with a Newey-West heteroskedasticity correction.

The nominal interest rate yield on municipals is a decreasing function of the maximum marginal federal personal income tax rate and an increasing function of the federal budget deficit (expressed as a per cent of GDP). This yield is also an increasing function of nominal interest rate yields on three- and ten-year treasury notes and expected inflation.

When introducing additional interest rates such as treasury bills as explanatory variables, multi-collinearity becomes a serious problem.

This study indicates that lower maximum federal personal income tax rates and larger federal budget deficits, both act to raise borrowing costs for cities (of all sizes), counties and states across the country. Given the study period of 58 years, these relationships appear to be enduring ones that responsible policy-makers should not overlook.

Tax reform and debt management need to be conducted in a very circumspect fashion.

No recent study investigating the impact of the two key policy variables in this study has been published.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of major historical developments in agricultural finance, with particular emphasis on agricultural credit. It reviews the development of Raiffeisen and related banks that emerged in Germany and Europe throughout the nineteenth century and how the cooperative banking system made its way into the banking system of the USA in the early twentieth century. The paper emphasizes the role of the state in the developing of agricultural credit, especially with respect to farm mortgages, securitization, and bond structures.

This paper presents a historical synthesis of historical literature on agricultural credit.

This paper shows the direct linkage between the developments in Raiffeisen credit cooperatives and the Farm Credit System (FCS) and details the emergence of the land banks, farm credit banks, agricultural bonds and the role of joint-stock banks in agricultural credit policy.

In total, 2016 marks the 100th anniversary of the passing of the 1916 Federal Farm Loan Act which set in motion the USs’ first Government Sponsored Enterprise and catalyzed the formation of the FCS as it operates today to provide credit to farmers and rural communities on a cooperative basis. Although there are a few wonderful books written on certain aspects of the FCS the story of how the FCS was initiated and the many struggles it faced up to the 1933 Act has not been told often enough. This paper tells the story of the evolution of agricultural credit that ultimately led to the formation of the FCS.

To investigate the impact of the federal budget deficit (expressed as a per cent of the Gross Domestic Product, GDP) in the US on the ex ante real interest rate yield on Moody’s Baa-rated corporate bonds and to provide evidence that is both contemporary and covers an extended time period, namely, 1960 through 2015.

The analysis constructs a loanable funds model that involves a variety of financial and economic variables, with the ex ante real interest rate yield on Moody’s Baa-rated long-term corporate bonds as the dependent variable. The dependent variable is contemporaneous with the federal budget deficit and two other interest rate measures. Accordingly, instrumental variables are identified for each of these contemporaneous explanatory variables. The model also consists of four additional (lagged) explanatory variables. The model is then estimated using auto-regressive, i.e., AR(1), two-stage least squares.

The principal finding is that the ex ante real interest rate yield on Moody’s Baa rated corporate bonds is an increasing function of the federal budget deficit, expressed as a per cent of GDP. In particular, if the federal budget deficit were to rise by one per centage point, say from 3 to 4 per cent of GDP, the ex ante real interest rate would rise by 58 basis points.

There are other time-series techniques that could be applied to the topic, such as co-integration, although the AR(1) process is tailored for studying volatile series such as interest rates and stock prices.

The greater the US federal budget deficit, the greater the real cost of funds to firms. Hence, the high budget deficits of recent years have led to the crowding out of investment in new plant, new equipment, and new technology. These impacts lower economic growth and restrict prosperity in the US over time. Federal budget deficits must be substantially reduced so as to protect the US economy.

Higher budget deficits act to reduce investment in ew plant, new equipment and new technology. This in turn reduces job growth and real GDP growth and compromises the health of the economy.

This is the first study to focus on the impact of the federal budget deficit on the ex ante real long term cost of funds to firms in decades. Nearly all related studies fail to focus on this variable. Since, in theory, this variable (represented by the ex ante real yield on Moody’s Baa rated long term corporate bonds) is a key factor in corporate investment decisions, the empirical findings have potentially very significant implications for US firms and for the economy as a whole in view of the extraordinarily high budget deficits of recent years.

The purpose of this article is to examine selected public policy and funding issues of six New York Metropolitan Area sport venues and to discuss their implications for the future of sport venue construction.

The design of this paper is a descriptive case study, which is appropriate when the question to be answered is how or why, when there is no necessary control of behavioral events, and when the study is focused on contemporary events. A systematic review of public documents and available research related to the recent development and funding of selected sport venues was conducted. In addition, a critical appraisal and financial analysis was performed on selected data collected from a variety of proprietary facility reports and public documents.

Based on a systematic examination of public documents and available research it was determined that a complex mix of local, regional, and state politics has impacted significantly the dynamics of professional sport venue development in the New York Metropolitan Area. It is also apparent that there has been a significant lack of transparency with respect to public policy. In addition, it appears that sport venue development in the entire US will experience a trend toward integration with retail, commercial, and residential real estate development that appears to be a result of political pressure and the need to rapidly recoup investment costs associated with sport venue construction.

Because this is a descriptive case study, the findings, etc., are limited to those specific venues and public policy issues that were selected for examination.

This case study should provide educators and practitioners with insight into the complexity of mission critical decisions that are involved in the development and funding of sport venues. It also should provide insight into the political process related to sport venue construction and the importance of transparency in communicating with the public.

This case study may provide educators and practitioners with insight into the relationship among public policy, venue financing, and selected social issues.

This case study provides original insight into the key elements of funding sport venues in the New York Metropolitan Area. It will provide educators and practitioners with a frame of reference for further examination of the development of sport venues worldwide.

The purpose of this study is to provide new empirical evidence on the impact of a variety of financial market forces on the ex post real cost of funds to corporations, namely, the ex post real interest rate yield on AAA-rated long-term corporate bonds in the USA. The study is couched within an open-economy loanable funds model, and it adopts annual data for the period 1973-2013, so that the results are current while being applicable only for the post-Bretton Woods era. The auto-regressive two-stage least squares (2SLS) and generalized method of moments (GMM) estimations reveal that the ex post real interest rate yield on AAA-rated long-term corporate bonds in the USA was an increasing function of the ex post real interest rate yields on six-month Treasury bills, seven-year Treasury notes, high-grade municipal bonds and the Moody’s BAA-rated corporate bonds, while being a decreasing function of the monetary base as a per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) and net financial capital inflows as a per cent of GDP. Finally, additional estimates reveal that the higher the budget deficit as a per cent of GDP, the higher the ex post real interest rate on AAA-rated long-term corporate bonds.

After developing an initial open-economy loanable funds model, the empirical dimension of the study involves auto-regressive, two-stage least squares and GMM estimates. The model is then expanded to include the federal budget deficit, and new AR/2SLS and GMM estimates are provided.

The AR/2SLS and GMM (generalized method of moments) estimations reveal that the ex post real interest rate yield on AAA-rated long-term corporate bonds in the USA was an increasing function of the ex post real interest rate yields on six-month Treasury bills, seven-year Treasury notes, high-grade municipal bonds and the Moody’s BAA-rated corporate bonds, while being a decreasing function of the monetary base as a per cent of GDP and net financial capital inflows as a per cent of GDP. Finally, additional estimates reveal that the higher the budget deficit as a per cent of GDP, the higher the ex post real interest rate on AAA-rated long -term corporate bonds.

The author is unaware of a study that adopts this particular set of real interest rates along with net capital inflows and the monetary base as a per cent of GDP and net capital inflows. Also, the data run through 2013. There have been only studies of deficits and real interest rates in the past few years.

According to independently developed hypotheses by Michael Darby (1975) and Martin Feldstein (1976) nominal interest rates will increase during an inflationary period by an amount which is greater than the expected rate of inflation. This occurs in order to compensate lenders for the expected loss of principal and for the taxation of the interest earned. While many authors comment on the plausibility of the Darby‐Feldstein effect, it has been difficult to support this hypotheses empirically.

The paper aims to understand the factors that have limited the development of this market in India. With a conservative bank-based economy in the backdrop and with the Central Bank pulling the strings, the sovereign debt market occupies the most space in the bonds universe of India. The latter and almost minuscule portion of this market is occupied by the corporate and industrial houses that have forayed into the market to raise finances. This has led to a cycle where lack of participation leads to lack of liquidity and underdeveloped rating mechanisms which further pressurizes the development of this market in India.

The paper is designed as a literature review which has attempted to identify the commonly agreed upon factors that have constrained the development of Corporate Bond markets in India especially and some other emerging economies who are successful or unsuccessful in their attempt to establish a corporate bond markets. These factors have then been categorized into broader heads and commented upon as a part of the analysis.

Corporate bond markets in India, although steadily progressing, is still impeded by the nature of the market itself. While the necessary steps have been taken to implement some of the recommendations by the Expert Committee, the response solicited has not quite been as expected. The poor liquidity, weak rating-mechanisms, absence of standardization and disclosure nomenclatures and illiquidity in the government bond market itself need to be addressed objectively.

The research adopted attempts to validate prior research and the attempts by regulators to implement an action plan. However, further progress on the changing scenarios is encouraged to be tested through a quantitative analysis.

The government and the Central Bank have constantly emphasized the importance of developing the Corporate debt market. Several studies have attempted to analyze the factors that have crippled the growth and steps taken by the Central Bank and Securities and Exchange Board of India by appointing an Expert Committee. This paper has attempted to visit all these factors and analyze the attempts to overcome by the Expert Committee including the backdrop of other nations who have a vibrant corporate debt market today. It sets the tone for further quantitative or statistical analysis.