Exchange traded funds (ETFs) that track a specified index are a financial technology that has risen dramatically in the last two decades. We model an ETF's optimal index replication strategy and show that it involves underweighting or omitting illiquid index assets. Instrumenting for ETF trading...

Manipulation of financial markets has long been a concern. With the automation of financial markets, the potential for high frequency market manipulation has arisen. Yet, such behavior is hidden within vast sums of order book data, making it difficult to define and to detect. We develop a...

We examine how liquidity in the equity market affects bank lending costs. An exogenous decrease in liquidity during the SEC Tick Size Pilot Program raises corporate bank borrowing costs; an effect that reverses when the program ends. We find similar results in a broad panel of firms using both...

We examine the real effects of stock market efficiency by analyzing how noise in stock prices affects the efficiency of capital allocation. Using data from 42 countries and a long time-series, we find that the efficiency of capital allocation across firms (the sensitivity of corporate investment...

Valued at around $10 trillion, the U.S. corporate bond market is slow, expensive, and inefficient. This Article argues that the bond market – premised on contract – rests on a flawed regulatory design that delivers neither investor protection nor market quality. It makes three contributions....