A Theory of Stock Exchange Competition and Innovation: Will the Market Fix the Market?∗
A Theory of Stock Exchange Competition and Innovation: Will the Market Fix the Market?∗ Eric Budish,† Robin S. Lee,‡ and John J. Shim§ July 2021 Abstract This paper models stock exchange competition and innovation in the modern electronic era. In the status quo, frictionless search and multi-homing cause seemingly fragmented exchanges to behave as a “virtual single platform.” As a result, exchange trading fees are competitive. But, exchanges earn economic profits from selling speed technology. We document stylized facts consistent with these results. We then analyze incentives for market design innovation. The novel tension between private and social innovation incentives is incumbents’ rents from speed technology. These rents create a disincentive to adopt market designs that eliminate latency arbitrage and the high-frequency trading arms race. Keywords: market design, innovation, financial exchanges, industrial organization, plat- form markets, high-frequency trading ∗An early version of this research was presented in the 2017 AEA/AFA joint luncheon address. We are extremely grateful to the colleagues, policymakers, and industry participants with whom we have discussed this research over the last several years. Special thanks to Larry Glosten, Terry Hendershott and Jakub Kastl for providing valuable feedback as conference discussants, and to Jason Abaluck, Nikhil Agarwal, Susan Athey, John Campbell, Dennis Carlton, Judy Chevalier, John Cochrane, Christopher Conlon, Shane Corwin, Peter Cramton, Doug Diamond, David Easley, Alex Frankel, Joel Hasbrouck, Kate Ho, Anil Kashyap, Pete Kyle, Donald Mackenzie, Neale Mahoney, Paul Milgrom, Joshua Mollner, Ariel Pakes, Al Roth, Fiona Scott Morton, Sophie Shive, Andrei Shleifer, Jeremy Stein, Mike Whinston, Heidi Williams and Luigi Zingales for valuable discussions and suggestions.
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