High-frequency traders (HFTs) dominate secondary market trading in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) but do not engage in ETF arbitrage. By contrast, primary market arbitrageurs enforce the law of one price, but their activities are infrequent and limited by arbitrage costs. We find that primary market activity is associated with increased volatility and illiquidity in overweighted ETF constituent stocks, while HFT activity is linked to narrower bid–ask spreads. Using a quasi-natural experiment in Japan, we show that while ETF primary market activity can temporarily disrupt market quality, the liquidity benefits of secondary market trading ultimately outweigh these negative effects

This paper evaluates the literature on international unconventional monetary policies (UMPs). Introducing market segmentation, limits-to-arbitrage, and time-consistent policy in standard models permits a theoretical role for UMP. Empirical studies provide compelling evidence that UMPs influenced international asset prices and tail risk in the desired manner. Calibrated modeling and vector autoregressive (VAR) exercises imply that these policies also improved macroeconomic outcomes. We assess the recent debate on the empirical evidence and discuss central bank assessments of UMP. Despite qualified successes, we recommend that UMP be reserved for crises and/or when the zero bound constrains conventional monetary policy

Bitcoin prices are driven by upward as well as downward jumps and so the bitcoin implied volatility surface behaves differently from those of established options markets. We analyze tick-level Deribit option price data, demonstrating increasing support for the limits-to-arbitrage hypothesis. Hence market makers are managing order imbalance and inventory more effectively as Deribit bitcoin options trading volumes increases. On the demand side, volatility traders drive both at-the-money and out-of-the-money option prices, the latter also being driven by directional traders. Directional effects were most pronounced during the price bubble of 2021. Further refinements of our tests assess time-to-maturity and time-of-day effects

We are delighted to announce that the winner of the 2010 Deutsche Bank Best Paper Award is: “Corporate Governance Externalities” by Viral Acharya and Paolo Volpin which appeared in issue 1 of Volume 14 and was voted by the editorial board as the best article published in the last four issues of the Review of Finance. The two runners-up for the award were: “Determinants of Sovereign Risk: Macroeconomic Fundamentals and the Pricing of Sovereign Debt” by Jens Hilscher and Yves Nosbusch and “The Limits of the Limits of Arbitrage” by Alon Brav, J.B. Heaton and Si Li The awards were presented at the 2010 annual meeting of the European Finance Association in Frankfurt on August 27th. We are grateful to the Deutsche Bank Foundation for sponsoring this award

Firms with higher asset growth rates subsequently experience lower stock returns in international equity markets, consistent with the U.S. evidence. This negative effect of asset growth on returns is stronger in more developed capital markets and markets where stocks are more efficiently priced, but is unrelated to country characteristics representing limits to arbitrage, investor protection, and accounting quality. The evidence suggests that the cross-sectional relation between asset growth and stock return is more likely due to an optimal investment effect than due to overinvestment, market timing, or other forms of mispricing

Recent research shows that a high wage-gap between managers and workers identifies better-performing firms, but the stock market does not seem to price this information. In this paper, we show that not all investors neglect pay inequality. Using a unique data set on German firms' employee compensation, we find that the mispricing of the wage gap is driven by limits to arbitrage. Specifically, some investors seem to bid up low-wage-gap stocks for non-monetary reasons, thus exhibiting a preference for low pay-inequality. The results suggest that firms with equitable pay schemes are rewarded with a lower cost of capital

This paper examines the predictions of the performance based arbitrage hypothesis for the merger arbitrage market. Performance based arbitrage [Shleifer, A., Vishny, R.W., 1997. The limits of arbitrage. Journal of Finance, 52 (1), 35–55] is the notion that funds under management are withdrawn from arbitrageurs following trading losses, resulting in inefficient prices for securities subject to arbitrage trades. I examine general comovement in merger arbitrage spreads and the response of spreads to large arbitrage losses and substantial changes in deal flow. I find little evidence that merger arbitrage spreads exhibit systematic comovement or are substantially affected by important liquidity events in this market

Firms with higher R&D intensity subsequently experience higher stock returns in international stock markets, highlighting the role of intangible investments in international asset pricing. The R&D effect is stronger in countries where growth option risk is more likely priced, but is unrelated to country characteristics representing market sentiments and limits-of-arbitrage. Moreover, we find that R&D intensity is associated with higher future operating performance, return volatility, and default likelihood. Our evidence suggests that the cross sectional relation between R&D intensity and stock returns is more likely attributable to risk premium than to mispricing

How does greater public disclosure of arbitrage activity and informed trading affect price efficiency? To answer this, we exploit rule amendments in U.S. securities markets, which impose a higher frequency of public disclosure of short positions. Higher public disclosure can hurt the production of information and deteriorate efficiency, or it can be beneficial by mitigating the limits to arbitrage and diffusing arbitrageurs’ information faster. With more frequent disclosure, information encapsulated within short interest is incorporated into prices faster, improving price efficiency. We find important reductions in short sellers’ horizon risk and increases in short sales with the rule amendments

Companies’ strategic alternatives announcements lead to negative future stock returns. First, we investigate whether this anomaly exists. We demonstrate that it is significant and pervasive across years, industries, firm size, and information environments and that it is not driven by confounding variables nor risk. We then investigate why the market misprices the announcements and find that investors appear overly optimistic about a potential merger or acquisition and do not fully incorporate the negative fundamental news conveyed by the announcement. Meanwhile, short sellers exploit the mispricing. We also evaluate market frictions as limits to arbitrage. This study’s contributions are (i) evaluating behavioral and risk explanations for an event that causes extreme stock returns, (ii) challenging investors’ widely held belief that such announcements reflect good news, and (iii) warning investors and analysts about a behavioral bias they might unknowingly adopt