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China Walls

Journal of Financial Economics 2026 186, 104403 open access
We evaluate the enforcement of China Walls—information barriers within conglomerates. We focus on July 2018, when the SEC tightened enforcement around broker-dealer subsidiaries, and on the 25 million Israeli Shekel trades over 2018–2024. Our difference-in-differences design compares a dealer’s affiliate, connected, and unrelated funds on days when the dealer likely obtained valuable information. Before July 2018, dealers share information with their affiliate and connected funds. After July 2018: the sharing ceases only with the affiliate funds; price discovery slows; trading costs fall for affiliate funds and rise for other funds. Tightly enforced walls eliminated 99.0% of affiliate funds’ event-day profits.