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

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  • 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
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    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.

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    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

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