IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/bubdps/212021.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Lighting up the dark: Liquidity in the German corporate bond market

Author

Listed:
  • Gündüz, Yalin
  • Pelizzon, Loriana
  • Schneider, Michael
  • Subrahmanyam, Marti G.

Abstract

We study the impact of transparency on liquidity in OTC markets. We do so by providing an analysis of liquidity in a corporate bond market without trade transparency (Germany), and comparing our findings to a market with full posttrade disclosure (the U.S.). We employ a unique regulatory dataset of transactions of German financial institutions from 2008 until 2014 to find that: First, overall trading activity is much lower in the German market than in the U.S. Second, similar to the U.S., the determinants of German corporate bond liquidity are in line with search theories of OTC markets. Third, surprisingly, frequently traded German bonds have transaction costs that are 39-61 bp lower than a matched sample of bonds in the U.S. Our results support the notion that, while market liquidity is generally higher in transparent markets, a subset of bonds could be more liquid in more opaque markets because of investors "crowding" their demand into a small number of more actively traded securities.

Suggested Citation

  • Gündüz, Yalin & Pelizzon, Loriana & Schneider, Michael & Subrahmanyam, Marti G., 2021. "Lighting up the dark: Liquidity in the German corporate bond market," Discussion Papers 21/2021, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:bubdps:212021
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/235891/1/1764037375.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vladimir Asriyan & William Fuchs & Brett Green, 2017. "Information Spillovers in Asset Markets with Correlated Values," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(7), pages 2007-2040, July.
    2. Darrell Duffie & Piotr Dworczak & Haoxiang Zhu, 2017. "Benchmarks in Search Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(5), pages 1983-2044, October.
    3. Erik Vogt & Michael Fleming & Or Shachar & Tobias Adrian, 2017. "Market Liquidity After the Financial Crisis," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 9(1), pages 43-83, November.
    4. Landschoot, Astrid Van, 2008. "Determinants of yield spread dynamics: Euro versus US dollar corporate bonds," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(12), pages 2597-2605, December.
    5. Wolfgang Aussenegg & Lukas Goetz & Ranko Jelic, 2015. "Common Factors in the Performance of European Corporate Bonds – Evidence before and after the Financial Crisis," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 21(2), pages 265-308, March.
    6. Christopher Boortz & Simon Jurkatis & Stephanie Kremer & Dieter Nautz, 2013. "Institutional Herding in Financial Markets: New Evidence through the Lens of a Simulated Model," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1336, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    7. Sebastian Utz & Martina Weber & Maximilian Wimmer, 2016. "German Mittelstand bonds: yield spreads and liquidity," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 86(1), pages 103-129, January.
    8. Jaewon Choi & Yesol Huh & Sean Seunghun Shin, 2024. "Customer Liquidity Provision: Implications for Corporate Bond Transaction Costs," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 70(1), pages 187-206, January.
    9. Jankowitsch, Rainer & Nagler, Florian & Subrahmanyam, Marti G., 2014. "The determinants of recovery rates in the US corporate bond market," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(1), pages 155-177.
    10. Lee, Charles M C & Ready, Mark J, 1991. "Inferring Trade Direction from Intraday Data," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(2), pages 733-746, June.
    11. Jack Bao & Jun Pan & Jiang Wang, 2011. "The Illiquidity of Corporate Bonds," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(3), pages 911-946, June.
    12. Bengt Holmstrom, 2015. "Understanding the role of debt in the financial system," BIS Working Papers 479, Bank for International Settlements.
    13. Marco Pagano, 2004. "The European Bond Markets under EMU," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 20(4), pages 531-554, Winter.
    14. Modena, Matteo & Linciano, Nadia & Gentile, Monica & Fancello, Francesco, 2014. "The liquidity of dual-listed corporate bonds: empirical evidence from Italian markets," MPRA Paper 62479, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 23 Feb 2015.
    15. Amihud, Yakov, 2002. "Illiquidity and stock returns: cross-section and time-series effects," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 31-56, January.
    16. Jean-David Fermanian & Olivier Guéant & Jiang Pu, 2016. "The behavior of dealers and clients on the European corporate bond market: the case of Multi-Dealer-to-Client platforms," Working Papers hal-01393134, HAL.
    17. Dick-Nielsen, Jens & Feldhütter, Peter & Lando, David, 2012. "Corporate bond liquidity before and after the onset of the subprime crisis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(3), pages 471-492.
    18. Friewald, Nils & Jankowitsch, Rainer & Subrahmanyam, Marti G., 2012. "Illiquidity or credit deterioration: A study of liquidity in the US corporate bond market during financial crises," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(1), pages 18-36.
    19. Raphael Schestag & Philipp Schuster & Marliese Uhrig-Homburg, 2016. "Measuring Liquidity in Bond Markets," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(5), pages 1170-1219.
    20. Francesco Trebbi & Kairong Xiao, 2019. "Regulation and Market Liquidity," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(5), pages 1949-1968, May.
    21. Houweling, Patrick & Mentink, Albert & Vorst, Ton, 2005. "Comparing possible proxies of corporate bond liquidity," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 1331-1358, June.
    22. Di Maggio, Marco & Kermani, Amir & Song, Zhaogang, 2017. "The value of trading relations in turbulent times," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(2), pages 266-284.
    23. Amy K. Edwards & Lawrence E. Harris & Michael S. Piwowar, 2007. "Corporate Bond Market Transaction Costs and Transparency," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(3), pages 1421-1451, June.
    24. Manfred Frühwirth & Paul Schneider & Leopold Sögner, 2010. "The Risk Microstructure of Corporate Bonds: A Case Study from the German Corporate Bond Market," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 16(4), pages 658-685, September.
    25. Todorov, Karamfil, 2020. "Quantify the quantitative easing: Impact on bonds and corporate debt issuance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(2), pages 340-358.
    26. Naik, Narayan Y & Neuberger, Anthony & Viswanathan, S, 1999. "Trade Disclosure Regulations in Markets with Negotiated Trades," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 12(4), pages 873-900.
    27. Antonio Díaz & Eliseo Navarro, 2002. "Yield Spread and Term to Maturity: Default vs. Liquidity," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 8(4), pages 449-477, December.
    28. Bessembinder, Hendrik & Maxwell, William & Venkataraman, Kumar, 2006. "Market transparency, liquidity externalities, and institutional trading costs in corporate bonds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 251-288, November.
    29. Jankowitsch, Rainer & Nashikkar, Amrut & Subrahmanyam, Marti G., 2011. "Price dispersion in OTC markets: A new measure of liquidity," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 343-357, February.
    30. Marco Di Maggio & Amir Kermani & Zhaogang Song, 2016. "The Value of Trading Relationships in Turbulent Times," NBER Working Papers 22332, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    31. Christopher Boortz & Stephanie Kremer & Simon Jurkatis & Dieter Nautz, 2014. "Information Risk, Market Stress and Institutional Herding in Financial Markets: New Evidence Through the Lens of a Simulated Model," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2014-029, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.
    32. Nils Friewald & Rainer Jankowitsch & Marti G. Subrahmanyam, 2017. "Transparency and Liquidity in the Structured Product Market," The Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 7(2), pages 316-348.
    33. Hendrik Bessembinder & Stacey Jacobsen & William Maxwell & Kumar Venkataraman, 2018. "Capital Commitment and Illiquidity in Corporate Bonds," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 73(4), pages 1615-1661, August.
    34. Bao, Jack & O’Hara, Maureen & (Alex) Zhou, Xing, 2018. "The Volcker Rule and corporate bond market making in times of stress," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(1), pages 95-113.
    35. Mike Anderson & René M. Stulz, 2017. "Is Post-Crisis Bond Liquidity Lower?," NBER Working Papers 23317, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    36. Carolina Castagnetti & Eduardo Rossi, 2013. "Euro Corporate Bond Risk Factors," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(3), pages 372-391, April.
    37. Bloomfield, Robert & O'Hara, Maureen, 1999. "Market Transparency: Who Wins and Who Loses?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 12(1), pages 5-35.
    38. Pagano, Marco & Roell, Ailsa, 1996. "Transparency and Liquidity: A Comparison of Auction and Dealer Markets with Informed Trading," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 51(2), pages 579-611, June.
    39. Roll, Richard, 1984. "A Simple Implicit Measure of the Effective Bid-Ask Spread in an Efficient Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 39(4), pages 1127-1139, September.
    40. Christian Klein & Christoph Stellner, 2014. "The systematic risk of corporate bonds: default risk, term risk, and index choice," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 28(1), pages 29-61, February.
    41. Darrell Duffie, 2012. "Dark Markets: Asset Pricing and Information Transmission in Over-the-Counter Markets," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9623.
    42. Lawrence E. Harris & Michael S. Piwowar, 2006. "Secondary Trading Costs in the Municipal Bond Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(3), pages 1361-1397, June.
    43. Lin, Hai & Wang, Junbo & Wu, Chunchi, 2011. "Liquidity risk and expected corporate bond returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(3), pages 628-650, March.
    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. Scheicher, Martin, 2023. "Intermediation in US and EU bond and swap markets: stylised facts, trends and impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis in March 2020," ESRB Occasional Paper Series 24, European Systemic Risk Board.
    2. de Roure, Calebe & Mönch, Emanuel & Pelizzon, Loriana & Schneider, Michael, 2019. "OTC discount," Discussion Papers 42/2019, Deutsche Bundesbank.
      • de Roure, Calebe & Mönch, Emanuel & Pelizzon, Loriana & Schneider, Michael, 2021. "OTC discount," SAFE Working Paper Series 298, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE, revised 2021.
    3. Daures-Lescourret, Laurence & Fulop, Andras, 2022. "Standardization, transparency initiatives, and liquidity in the CDS market," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 59(PA).
    4. Olfa Berrich & Halim Dabbou & Mohamed Imen Gallali, 2022. "Over-the-counter market and corporate bond market development," International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 47(2/3), pages 284-304.
    5. Haselmann, Rainer & Krahnen, Jan Pieter & Wahrenburg, Mark, 2019. "Evaluierung gesamt- und finanzwirtschaftlicher Effekte der Reformen europäischer Finanzmarktregulierung im deutschen Finanzsektor seit der Finanzkrise: Zusammenfassung der wichtigsten Ergebnisse," SAFE Policy Reports 2, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    6. Olfa Berrich & Halim Dabbou, 2023. "Tunisian corporate bond market liquidity: a qualitative approach," Qualitative Research in Financial Markets, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 15(5), pages 795-819, February.

    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. Goldstein, Michael A. & Namin, Elmira Shekari, 2023. "Corporate bond liquidity and yield spreads: A review," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    2. Loon, Yee Cheng & Zhong, Zhaodong (Ken), 2016. "Does Dodd-Frank affect OTC transaction costs and liquidity? Evidence from real-time CDS trade reports," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(3), pages 645-672.
    3. Han, Song & Huang, Alan Guoming & Kalimipalli, Madhu & Wang, Ke, 2022. "Information and liquidity of over-the-counter securities: Evidence from public registration of Rule 144A bonds," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 59(PB).
    4. Loon, Yee Cheng & Zhong, Zhaodong Ken, 2014. "The impact of central clearing on counterparty risk, liquidity, and trading: Evidence from the credit default swap market," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(1), pages 91-115.
    5. Reichenbacher, Michael & Schuster, Philipp, 2022. "Size-adapted bond liquidity measures and their asset pricing implications," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(2), pages 425-443.
    6. Goldstein, Michael A. & Hotchkiss, Edith S., 2020. "Providing liquidity in an illiquid market: Dealer behavior in US corporate bonds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(1), pages 16-40.
    7. Leal, Diego & Stanhouse, Bryan & Stock, Duane, 2020. "Estimating the term structure of corporate bond liquidity premiums: An analysis of default free bank bonds," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    8. Díaz, Antonio & Escribano, Ana, 2022. "Liquidity dimensions in the U.S. corporate bond market," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1163-1179.
    9. Helwege, Jean & Wang, Liying, 2021. "Liquidity and price pressure in the corporate bond market: evidence from mega-bonds," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    10. Díaz, Antonio & Escribano, Ana, 2020. "Measuring the multi-faceted dimension of liquidity in financial markets: A literature review," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    11. Díaz, Antonio & Escribano, Ana, 2017. "Liquidity measures throughout the lifetime of the U.S. Treasury bond," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 42-74.
    12. Friewald, Nils & Jankowitsch, Rainer & Subrahmanyam, Marti G., 2014. "To disclose or not to disclose: Transparency and liquidity in the structured product market," CFS Working Paper Series 461, Center for Financial Studies (CFS).
    13. Rhodes, Meredith E. & Mason, Joseph R., 2023. "ETF ownership and firm-specific information in corporate bond returns," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    14. Friewald, Nils & Nagler, Florian, 2018. "Over-the-Counter Market Frictions and Yield Spread Changes," CEPR Discussion Papers 13345, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    15. 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.
    16. Adrian, Tobias & Boyarchenko, Nina & Shachar, Or, 2017. "Dealer balance sheets and bond liquidity provision," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 92-109.
    17. Song Han & Hao Zhou, 2016. "Effects of Liquidity on the Non-Default Component of Corporate Yield Spreads: Evidence from Intraday Transactions Data," Quarterly Journal of Finance (QJF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 6(03), pages 1-49, September.
    18. Anderson, Mike, 2017. "A causal link between bond liquidity and stock returns," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 190-208.
    19. Sergey Chernenko & Adi Sunderam, 2020. "Measuring the Perceived Liquidity of the Corporate Bond Market," NBER Working Papers 27092, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Helwege, Jean & Huang, Jing-Zhi & Wang, Yuan, 2014. "Liquidity effects in corporate bond spreads," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 105-116.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Corporate Bonds; WpHG; Liquidity; Transparency; OTC markets;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:zbw:bubdps:212021. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dbbgvde.html .

    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.