IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/eurjfi/v29y2023i3p255-277.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Price discovery and gains from trade in asset markets with insider trading

Author

Listed:
  • Tobias Brünner
  • René Levínský

Abstract

The present study contributes to the ongoing debate on possible costs and benefits of insider trading. We present a novel call auction model with insider information. Our model predicts that more insider information improves informational efficiency of prices, but this comes at the expense of reduced gains from trade. Testing these hypotheses in the lab, we find that insider information increases informational efficiency of call auction prices but does not decrease the realized gains from trade. We further find that the call auction does not perform worse than the continuous double auction. In fact, when the probability of insider information is high, the call auction has the most informative prices and highest realized gains from trade. Our experiment provides new evidence, from markets with very asymmetrically dispersed information, that lends support to the decision by many stock exchanges to use call auctions when information asymmetries are severe and the need for accurate prices is large, e.g. at the open or close of the trading day.

Suggested Citation

  • Tobias Brünner & René Levínský, 2023. "Price discovery and gains from trade in asset markets with insider trading," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(3), pages 255-277, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:eurjfi:v:29:y:2023:i:3:p:255-277
    DOI: 10.1080/1351847X.2022.2032241
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/1351847X.2022.2032241
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/1351847X.2022.2032241?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Grossman, Sanford J & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1980. "On the Impossibility of Informationally Efficient Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(3), pages 393-408, June.
    2. Pouget, Sebastien, 2007. "Financial market design and bounded rationality: An experiment," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 287-317, August.
    3. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:3:p:969-998 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Amihud, Yakov & Mendelson, Haim, 1986. "Asset pricing and the bid-ask spread," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 223-249, December.
    5. Kagel, John H & Levin, Dan, 1993. "Independent Private Value Auctions: Bidder Behaviour in First-, Second- and Third-Price Auctions with Varying Numbers of Bidders," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 103(419), pages 868-879, July.
    6. Urs Fischbacher, 2007. "z-Tree: Zurich toolbox for ready-made economic experiments," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 10(2), pages 171-178, June.
    7. Timothy N. Cason & Daniel Friedman, 1997. "Price Formation in Single Call Markets," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(2), pages 311-346, March.
    8. Charles R. Plott & Kirill Pogorelskiy, 2017. "Call Market Experiments: Efficiency and Price Discovery through Multiple Calls and Emergent Newton Adjustments," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(4), pages 1-41, November.
    9. Diamond, Douglas W & Verrecchia, Robert E, 1991. "Disclosure, Liquidity, and the Cost of Capital," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(4), pages 1325-1359, September.
    10. Leland, Hayne E, 1992. "Insider Trading: Should It Be Prohibited?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(4), pages 859-887, August.
    11. Pagano, Michael S. & Peng, Lin & Schwartz, Robert A., 2013. "A call auction's impact on price formation and order routing: Evidence from the NASDAQ stock market," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 331-361.
    12. Theissen, Erik, 2000. "Market structure, informational efficiency and liquidity: An experimental comparison of auction and dealer markets," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 333-363, November.
    13. George M. Constantinides, 2005. "Capital Market Equilibrium with Transaction Costs," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Sudipto Bhattacharya & George M Constantinides (ed.), Theory Of Valuation, chapter 7, pages 207-227, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    14. Kagel, John H & Harstad, Ronald M & Levin, Dan, 1987. "Information Impact and Allocation Rules in Auctions with Affiliated Private Values: A Laboratory Study," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(6), pages 1275-1304, November.
    15. Eric Budish & Peter Cramton & John Shim, 2015. "Editor's Choice The High-Frequency Trading Arms Race: Frequent Batch Auctions as a Market Design Response," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 130(4), pages 1547-1621.
    16. Davis, Douglas D. & Williams, Arlington W., 1997. "The effects of nonstationarities on performance in call markets," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 39-54, January.
    17. Friedman, Daniel, 1993. "How Trading Institutions Affect Financial Market Performance: Some Laboratory Evidence," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 31(3), pages 410-435, July.
    18. Bruno Biais & Christophe Bisière & Sébastien Pouget, 2014. "Equilibrium Discovery and Preopening Mechanisms in an Experimental Market," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(3), pages 753-769, March.
    19. Mark A. Satterthwaite & Steven R. Williams, 1989. "The Rate of Convergence to Efficiency in the Buyer's Bid Double Auction as the Market Becomes Large," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 56(4), pages 477-498.
    20. Comerton-Forde, Carole & Rydge, James, 2006. "The influence of call auction algorithm rules on market efficiency," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 199-222, May.
    21. Bernard, John C., 2006. "Finding and retaining the dominant strategy: The second-price, English and `sealed offer' English auctions," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 60(4), pages 553-561, August.
    22. Pagano, Michael S. & Schwartz, Robert A., 2003. "A closing call's impact on market quality at Euronext Paris," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(3), pages 439-484, June.
    23. repec:grz:wpsses:2019-01 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. repec:grz:wpsses:2021-04 is not listed on IDEAS

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Morone, Andrea & Nuzzo, Simone, 2015. "Market Efficiency, Trading Institutions and Information Mirages: evidence from an experimental asset market," MPRA Paper 67448, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Vayanos, Dimitri & Wang, Jiang, 2013. "Market Liquidity—Theory and Empirical Evidence ," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1289-1361, Elsevier.
    3. Eduardo Dávila, 2023. "Optimal Financial Transaction Taxes," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 78(1), pages 5-61, February.
    4. Eric M. Aldrich & Kristian López Vargas, 2020. "Experiments in high-frequency trading: comparing two market institutions," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 23(2), pages 322-352, June.
    5. Morone, Andrea & Nuzzo, Simone, 2016. "Do markets (institutions) drive out lemmings - or vice versa?," Kiel Working Papers 2061, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    6. Eduardo Dávila & Cecilia Parlatore, 2021. "Trading Costs and Informational Efficiency," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 76(3), pages 1471-1539, June.
    7. Collins, Sean M. & James, Duncan & Servátka, Maroš & Vadovič, Radovan, 2021. "Attainment of equilibrium via Marshallian path adjustment: Queueing and buyer determinism," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 94-106.
    8. Bulent Guler & Volodymyr Lugovskyy & Daniela Puzzello & Steven Tucker, 2021. "Trading Institutions in Experimental Asset Markets: Theory and Evidence," Working Papers in Economics 21/15, University of Waikato.
    9. Andrea Morone & Simone Nuzzo, 2019. "Market efficiency, trading institutions and information mirages: evidence from a laboratory asset market," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 14(2), pages 317-344, June.
    10. Nuzzo, Simone & Morone, Andrea, 2017. "Asset markets in the lab: A literature review," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 13(C), pages 42-50.
    11. Lin, Zih-Ying & Chang, Chuang-Chang & Wang, Yaw-Huei, 2018. "The impacts of asymmetric information and short sales on the illiquidity risk premium in the stock option market," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 152-165.
    12. Cason, Timothy N. & Saijo, Tatsuyoshi & Sjostrom, Tomas & Yamato, Takehiko, 2006. "Secure implementation experiments: Do strategy-proof mechanisms really work?," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 57(2), pages 206-235, November.
    13. Drichoutis, Andreas C. & Nayga, Rodolfo M. & Lusk, Jayson L. & Lazaridis, Panagiotis, 2012. "When a risky prospect is valued more than its best possible outcome," Judgment and Decision Making, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(1), pages 1-18, January.
    14. Mark Marner-Hausen, 2022. "Developing a Framework for Real-Time Trading in a Laboratory Financial Market," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 172, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    15. Anagnostidis, Panagiotis & Fontaine, Patrice & Varsakelis, Christos, 2020. "Are high–frequency traders informed?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 365-383.
    16. Ivanova-Stenzel, Radosveta & Salmon, Timothy C., 2008. "Revenue equivalence revisited," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 171-192, September.
    17. Takehito Masuda & Ryo Mikami & Toyotaka Sakai & Shigehiro Serizawa & Takuma Wakayama, 2022. "The net effect of advice on strategy-proof mechanisms: an experiment for the Vickrey auction," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 25(3), pages 902-941, June.
    18. Kirchkamp, Oliver & Poen, Eva & Rei, J. Philipp, 2009. "Outside options: Another reason to choose the first-price auction," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 153-169, February.
    19. Ji Yong Lee & Rodolfo M. Nayga & Cary Deck & Andreas C. Drichoutis, 2020. "Cognitive Ability and Bidding Behavior in Second Price Auctions: An Experimental Study," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 102(5), pages 1494-1510, October.
    20. Vayanos, Dimitri & Wang, Jiang, 2009. "Liquidity and asset prices: a united framework," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 29303, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:eurjfi:v:29:y:2023:i:3:p:255-277. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/REJF20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.