We examine the effect of the short-selling ban in 2011 on Spanish stocks on the level of risk in the banking sector. Before the ban, short positions were found to be positive and significantly related to the creditworthiness of medium-sized banks, these being generally less internationally...

Using three natural experiments, we test the hypothesis that investor overconfidence produces overpricing of high idiosyncratic volatility stocks in the presence of binding short-sale constraints. We study three events: IPO lockup expirations, option introductions, and the 2008 short-sale ban on...

We provide new empirical evidence concerning the contentious debate over the use of historical cost (HCA) versus mark-to-market (MTM) accounting in regulating financial institutions. These accounting rules, through their interactions with capital regulations, alter financial institutions’...

Sub-Penny Trading (SPT) is a form of dark trading that allows traders to undercut displayed liquidity. We distinguish between SPT that is queue jumping (QJ) and mid- crossing (MID) and find that QJ is higher for NASDAQ than NYSE stocks. Consistently with Buti, Rindi, Wen and Werner (2013), QJ is...

We investigate possible reasons for voluntary delistings by U.S. firms from the Tokyo Stock Exchange from 1982 to 2005. We find that the small shareholder base, as measured by low turnover, for U.S. stocks in Japan helps to explain the voluntary foreign delistings. This finding is consistent,...

We study the joint determination of fund managers' contracts and equilibrium asset prices. Because of agency frictions, investors make managers' fees more sensitive to performance and benchmark performance against a market index. This makes managers unwilling to deviate from the index and...

Recent scandals over the manipulation of LIBOR and foreign exchange benchmarks have spurred policy discussions of the appropriate design of financial benchmarks. We solve a version of the problem faced by a financial benchmark administrator. Acting as a mechanism designer, the benchmark...

We examine the impact of stock exchange trading rules and surveillance on the frequency and severity of suspected insider trading cases in 22 stock exchanges around the world over the period January 2003 through June 2011. Using new indices for market manipulation, insider trading, and...

We show that the presence of high frequency trading (HFT) has significantly mitigated the frequency and severity of end-of-day price dislocation, counter to recent concerns expressed in the media. The effect of HFT is more pronounced on days when end of day price dislocation is more likely to be...

The recent market crises have focused interest on methods to improve the functioning of financial markets. Before implementing new regulations, it is necessary to evaluate the effects of previous regulations. Regulatory changes such as Fair Disclosure have an effect on information dissemination...