This paper builds a model of high-frequency equity returns by separately modeling the dynamics of trade-time returns and trade arrivals. Our main contributions are threefold. First, we characterize the distributional behavior of high-frequency asset returns both in ordinary clock time and in...

We establish the importance of relative minimum price increments for price discovery in the context of a single asset trading at diverse venues. Our model relates relative spreads to directed information flows and begets a set of testable implications. Although conventional wisdom dictates that...

How does public information on asset payoffs affect private information acquisition and aggregated market information? In turn, how do private information and market information affect asset price volatility and liquidity? What are the roles of information costs and market competitivity? To...

A growing body of evidence suggests that assets included in market indexes such as the S&P 500 trade at a premium relative to other assets. In this paper we look for evidence of such an index inclusion premium in a carefully controlled laboratory experiment. Our environment involves three assets...

Can public information complement private information acquisition? What are the implicationsfor asset market performance? Our paper investigates by constructing a simple bond market in thelaboratory. Human investors observe public information on default probability and then, beforetrading,...