This paper tries to provide a simple explanation for the empirical finding, documented here and also by Hau, Killeen and Moore (2002), that spreads in the spot USD/EUR market are substantially higher than those in the preceding DEM/USD foreign exchange market. The paper argues that it is...

This paper tries to provide a simple explanation for the empirical finding, documented here and also by Hau, Killeen and Moore (2002), that spreads in the spot USD/EUR market are substantially higher than those in the preceding DEM/USD foreign exchange market. The paper argues that it is...

We compute bid-ask spreads for the dollar/euro exchange rate and find them to be substantially larger than their deutschemark counterparts before introduction of the euro. We show that larger percentage spreads are not explained by volatility, trade intensity, and other standard explanatory...