Capital gains taxes and the market response to public announcements in an indexation-based tax regime

This paper addresses the impact of capital gains taxes on the market price and trading volume response to public announcements in an indexation-based tax regime. Our analysis indicates that indexation makes share prices more responsive to public announcements. Moreover, ‘over responsiveness’ induces negative correlation between short-term price changes around the public announcement and subsequent long-term price movements. This effect is greater when anticipated inflation is higher. Our analysis also indicates that trading volume is increasing in price changes around the public announcement.