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Journal of Financial Economics Vol. 98 No. 3 2010

Mispricing of dual-class shares: Profit opportunities, arbitrage, and trading☆

Paul Schultz; Sophie Shive

University of Notre Dame

Abstract

This is the first paper to examine the microstructure of how mispricing is created and resolved. We study dual-class shares with equal cash flow rights and show that a simple trading strategy exploiting gaps between their prices appears to create abnormal profits after transactions costs. Trade and quote data show that investors shift their trading patterns to take advantage of gaps. Contrary to common perception, long–short arbitrage plays a minor part in eliminating gaps, and one-sided trades correct most of them. We also show that the more liquid share class is usually responsible for the price discrepancies.

DOI
10.1016/j.jfineco.2010.06.007
Volume
98
Issue
3
Pages
524-549
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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