This paper provides an analysis of the equity-market effects of a substantial increase in individual shareholder participation in the market for a firm. The data are based on reductions in lot sizes or Minimum Trade Units (MTUs) on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE). There is a shift in order flow...

We analyze the likelihood of government bailouts of a sample of 450 politically-connected (but publicly-traded) firms from 35 countries over the period 1997 through 2002. We find that politically-connected firms are significantly more likely to be bailed out than similar non-connected firms....