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Measuring market liquidity: An introductory survey

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  • Alexandros Gabrielsen
  • Massimiliano Marzo
  • Paolo Zagaglia

Abstract

Asset liquidity in modern financial markets is a key but elusive concept. A market is often said to be liquid when the prevailing structure of transactions provides a prompt and secure link between the demand and supply of assets, thus delivering low costs of transaction. Providing a rigorous and empirically relevant definition of market liquidity has, however, provided to be a difficult task. This paper provides a critical review of the frameworks currently available for modelling and estimating the market liquidity of assets. We consider definitions that stress the role of the bid-ask spread and the estimation of its components that arise from alternative sources of market friction. In this case, intra-daily measures of liquidity appear relevant for capturing the core features of a market, and for their ability to describe the arrival of new information to market participants.

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  • Alexandros Gabrielsen & Massimiliano Marzo & Paolo Zagaglia, 2011. "Measuring market liquidity: An introductory survey," Papers 1112.6169, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:1112.6169
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    1. Capelle-Blancard, Gunther & Havrylchyk, Olena, 2016. "The impact of the French securities transaction tax on market liquidity and volatility," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 166-178.
    2. Ramos, Henrique Pinto & Righi, Marcelo Brutti, 2020. "Liquidity, implied volatility and tail risk: A comparison of liquidity measures," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    3. Kalak, Izidin El & Azevedo, Alcino & Hudson, Robert & Karim, Mohamad Abd, 2017. "Stock liquidity and SMEs’ likelihood of bankruptcy: Evidence from the US market," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 1383-1393.
    4. Afego, Pyemo N., 2017. "Effects of changes in stock index compositions: A literature survey," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 228-239.
    5. Auer, Benjamin R. & Rottmann, Horst, 2019. "Have capital market anomalies worldwide attenuated in the recent era of high liquidity and trading activity?," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 61-79.
    6. Mark D. Flood & John C. Liechty & Thomas Piontek, 2015. "Systemwide Commonalities in Market Liquidity," Working Papers 15-11, Office of Financial Research, US Department of the Treasury, revised 14 Dec 2016.
    7. Broto, Carmen & Lamas, Matías, 2020. "Is market liquidity less resilient after the financial crisis? Evidence for US Treasuries," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 217-229.
    8. Mariya Gubareva, 2021. "Covid-19 and high-yield emerging market bonds: insights for liquidity risk management," Risk Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(3), pages 193-212, September.
    9. Caporin, Massimiliano & Ranaldo, Angelo & Velo, Gabriel G., 2013. "Stylized Facts and Dynamic Modeling of High-frequency Data on Precious Metals," Working Papers on Finance 1318, University of St. Gallen, School of Finance.
    10. OUATTARA, Aboudou, 2016. "Impact of the transition to continous trading on emerging financial market's liquidity : Case study of the West Africa Regional Exchange Market (BRVM)," MPRA Paper 75391, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Richard Bookstaber & Mark Paddrik, 2015. "An Agent-based Model for Crisis Liquidity Dynamics," Working Papers 15-18, Office of Financial Research, US Department of the Treasury.
    12. Eduardo Bered Fernandes Vieira & Tiago Pascoal Filomena & Leonardo Riegel Sant’anna & Miguel A. Lejeune, 2023. "Liquidity-constrained index tracking optimization models," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 330(1), pages 73-118, November.
    13. Eduardo Bered Fernandes Vieira & Tiago Pascoal Filomena, 2020. "Liquidity Constraints for Portfolio Selection Based on Financial Volume," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 56(4), pages 1055-1077, December.
    14. Luis Opazo & Claudio Raddatz & Sergio L. Schmukler, 2015. "Institutional Investors and Long-Term Investment: Evidence from Chile," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 29(3), pages 479-522.
    15. Massimiliano Caporin & Angelo Ranaldo & Gabriel G. Velo, 2015. "Precious metals under the microscope: a high-frequency analysis," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(5), pages 743-759, May.
    16. Carmen Broto & Matías Lamas, 2016. "Measuring market liquidity in us fixed income markets: a new synthetic indicator," Working Papers 1608, Banco de España.
    17. Capelle-Blancard, Gunther, 2017. "Curbing the growth of stock trading? Order-to-trade ratios and financial transaction taxes," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 48-73.
    18. Stefano Alderighi, 2017. "A note on how to enhance liquidity in emerging markets by levering on trading participants," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 37(4), pages 2526-2532.
    19. Olk, Christopher, 2023. "Liquidity premia: the PPP puzzle's missing piece?," SocArXiv exnf6, Center for Open Science.
    20. Anton Golub & Gregor Chliamovitch & Alexandre Dupuis & Bastien Chopard, 2014. "Multi-scale Representation of High Frequency Market Liquidity," Papers 1402.2198, arXiv.org.
    21. Huong Le & Andros Gregoriou, 2020. "How Do You Capture Liquidity? A Review Of The Literature On Low‐Frequency Stock Liquidity," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(5), pages 1170-1186, December.
    22. Song, Yazhi & Liu, Tiansen & Li, Yin & Zhu, Yue & Ye, Bin, 2022. "Paths and policy adjustments for improving carbon-market liquidity in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    23. Gubareva, Mariya, 2021. "The impact of Covid-19 on liquidity of emerging market bonds," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    24. Gan, Quan & Leung, Henry & Zhou, Zhou, 2021. "Do intra-day auctions improve market liquidity?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    25. Thomas Krabichler & Josef Teichmann, 2020. "A constraint-based notion of illiquidity," Papers 2004.12394, arXiv.org.

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    JEL classification:

    • G1 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets
    • G10 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates

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