In this paper, we demonstrate using a simple model that reducing tick size may either reduce or increase adverse selection. Therefore, the effect of tick size on adverse selection is an important empirical question. At the same time, we demonstrate that the standard asymmetric information models...

Investors globally prefer dividend-paying stocks over non-dividend-paying stocks more in declining than in advancing markets, even accounting for firm-level growth opportunities, size and risk effects. Dividend paying stocks outperform non-dividend paying stocks, from 0.63% (China) to 3.79%...

The use of computers to execute trades, often with very low latency, has increased over time, resulting in a variety of computer algorithms executing electronically targeted trading strategies at high speed. We describe the evolution of increasingly fast automated trading over the past decade...

The study investigates competition in the market for NASDAQ stocks during a recent period in U.S. equity markets history when three major ECNs - Archipelago, Island, and Instinet - are identifiable in TAQ. We show that the ECNs compete with NASDAQ's SuperMontage on the basis of quotes, execution...

Over 85% U.S. firms set their pension discount rates higher than benchmark rates, particularly when interest rates fall. This paper offers explanations to this phenomenon --- mandatory contributions to underfunded pensions constrain corporate investments, thus a relaxation of such constraint...

On October 27, 1997, circuit breakers caused the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to halt trading for the first time in history as the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) lost 554 points. The next day, the NYSE traded a record 1.2 billion shares as the DJIA increased by 337 points, the largest...

Using limit order data provided by the NYSE, we investigate the impact of reducing the minimum tick size on the liquidity of the market. While both spreads and depths (quoted and on the limit order book) declined after the NYSE's change from eighths to sixteenths, depth declined throughout the...

Blume and Goldstein [Journal of Finance 52, 1997, 221-244] suggest that quote competition between trading venues may diminish following tick size reductions. We test this suggestion by studying the competitive landscape in the NYSE-listed stocks before and after decimalization. We find that NBBO...

Using a proprietary database of institutional trades, we find direct evidence that institutions churn stocks, increase the average commission per share they pay, and pay unusually high commissions on some trades in order to send abnormally high commissions to lead underwriters of upcoming...