Institutional Interventions and Performance of Futures Markets in China

We study the establishment and development of the most successful futures market in China. We document the evolution of the market microstructures and the attempts by the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange's management to improve the performance of the futures market. Our finding suggests that if other former centrally planned economies want to establish futures markets, they must think carefully not only of the design and microstructure of the futures market, but they also have to choose carefully what contracts to offer.