This paper uses intraday data from the interdealer government bond market to investigate the effects of scheduled macroeconomic announcements on prices, trading volume, and bid-ask spreads. We find that 17 public news releases, as measured by the surprise in the announced quantity, have a significant impact on the price of at least one of the following instruments: a three-month bill, a two-year note, a 10-year note, and a 30-year bond. These effects vary significantly according to maturity. Public news can explain a substantial fraction of price volatility in the aftermath of announcements, and the adjustment to news generally occurs within one minute after the announcement. We document significant and persistent increases in volatility and trading volume after the announcements. Bidask spreads, on the other hand, widen at the time of the announcements, but then revert to normal values after five to 15 minutes. The effects that we document have relevant implications for yield curve modeling and for the microstructure of bond markets.

We study nearly 7,000 retirement accounts during the April 1994-August 1998 period. Several interesting patterns emerge. Most asset allocations are extreme (either 100 percent or zero percent in equities) and there is inertia in asset allocations. Equity allocations are higher for males, married investors, and for investors with higher earnings and more seniority on the job; equity allocations are lower for older investors. There is very limited portfolio reshuffling, in sharp contrast to discount brokerage accounts. Daily changes in equity allocations correlate only weakly with same-day equity returns and do not correlate with future equity returns.

We examine the loss in utility for a consumer who ignores any or all of the following: (1) the multi-period nature of the consumer's portfolio-choice problem, (2) the empirically documented predictability of asset returns, or (3) transaction costs. Both the costs of behaving myopically and ignoring predictability can be substantial, although allowing for intermediate consumption reduces these costs. Ignoring realistic transaction costs ("xed and proportional) imposes signi"cant utility costs that range from 0.8% up to 16.9% of wealth. For the scenarios that we consider, the presence of transaction costs always increases the utility cost of behaving myopically, but decreases the utility cost of ignoring predictability.1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.JEL classixcation: G11; G12

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