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Trading Costs and Informational Efficiency

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  • Eduardo Dávila
  • Cecilia Parlatore

Abstract

We study the effect of trading costs on information aggregation and acquisition in financial markets. For a given precision of investors' private information, an irrelevance result emerges when investors are ex-ante identical: price informativeness is independent of the level of trading costs. When investors are ex-ante heterogeneous, anything goes, and a change in trading costs can increase or decrease price informativeness, depending on the source of heterogeneity. Our results are valid under quadratic, linear, and fixed costs. Through a reduction in information acquisition, trading costs reduce price informativeness. We discuss how our results inform the policy debate on financial transaction taxes/Tobin taxes.

Suggested Citation

  • Eduardo Dávila & Cecilia Parlatore, 2019. "Trading Costs and Informational Efficiency," NBER Working Papers 25662, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25662
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    Cited by:

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    3. Maryam Farboodi & Laura Veldkamp, 2017. "Long Run Growth of Financial Technology," NBER Working Papers 23457, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Babus, Ana & Parlatore, Cecilia, 2022. "Strategic fragmented markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(3), pages 876-908.
    5. Baudry, Marc & Faure, Anouk & Quemin, Simon, 2021. "Emissions trading with transaction costs," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    6. María Nieves López-García & Miguel Angel Sánchez-Granero & Juan Evangelista Trinidad-Segovia & Antonio Manuel Puertas & Francisco Javier De las Nieves, 2021. "Volatility Co-Movement in Stock Markets," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-19, March.
    7. Michael Fleming & Giang Nguyen & Francisco Ruela, 2024. "Tick Size, Competition for Liquidity Provision, and Price Discovery: Evidence from the U.S. Treasury Market," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 70(1), pages 332-354, January.
    8. Dávila, Eduardo & Parlatore, Cecilia, 2023. "Volatility and informativeness," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(3), pages 550-572.
    9. Veldkamp, Laura & Farboodi, Maryam, 2018. "Long Run Growth of Financial Data Technology," CEPR Discussion Papers 13278, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Xu, Weijun & Pan, Shiliang & Ji, Yucheng & Zhao, Qi, 2023. "Public disclosure with information sharing in financial market," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    11. Eduardo Dávila, 2023. "Optimal Financial Transaction Taxes," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 78(1), pages 5-61, February.
    12. Jordi Mondria & Xavier Vives & Liyan Yang, 2022. "Costly Interpretation of Asset Prices," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(1), pages 52-74, January.
    13. Coles, Jeffrey L. & Heath, Davidson & Ringgenberg, Matthew C., 2022. "On index investing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(3), pages 665-683.
    14. Maryam Farboodi & Laura Veldkamp, 2018. "Long Run Growth of Financial Data Technology," Working Papers 18-09, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics.
    15. Tobias Dieler & Sonny Biswas & Giacomo Calzolari & Fabio Castiglionesi, 2023. "Asset Trade, Real Investment, and a Tilting Financial Transaction Tax," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(4), pages 2401-2424, April.
    16. Maogang Tang & Silu Cheng & Wenqing Guo & Weibiao Ma & Fengxia Hu, 2023. "Relationship between carbon emission trading schemes and companies’ total factor productivity: evidence from listed companies in China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(10), pages 11735-11767, October.
    17. Huang, Shiyang & Qiu, Zhigang & Yang, Liyan, 2020. "Institutionalization, delegation, and asset prices," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).

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    JEL classification:

    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading

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