This paper addresses the question of whether transaction costs affect stock prices. This question, in the intersection of market microstructure and asset pricing, has no supportive causal evidence to this date, which may explain the omission of transaction costs in mainstream asset pricing...

Stock exchange operators compete for order flow by setting "make" fees for limit orders and "take" fees for market orders. When traders quote continuous prices, they can choose prices that perfectly neutralize any fee division, and traders stream to the exchange with the lowest total fee. The...