Financial Super-Markets: Size Matters for Asset Trade

This paper presents a new theoretical framework to analyze=20 financial markets in an international context. We build a two-country=20 macroeconomic model in which agents are risk averse, assets are imperfect=20 substitutes, the number of financial assets is endogenous, and cross-border= =20 asset trade entails transaction costs. We show that demand effects have=20 important implications for the link between market size, asset prices and=20 financial market development. These effects are consistent with the=20 existing empirical evidence. Due to co-ordination failures, the extent of=20 financial market incompleteness is inefficiently high. We also analyze the= =20 impact of domestic transaction costs and issuing costs on financial markets= =20 and returns.