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Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis Vol. 47 No. 4 2012

Sell-Side Information Production in Financial Markets

Zhaohui Chen1; William J. Wilhelm2,1

1 University of Virginia · 2 Center for Economic and Policy Research

Abstract

We study decisions to sell nonexcludable private information in the presence of a trading opportunity. Sell-side agents heighten competition among agents who buy their signals to combine with their own for proprietary trading purposes and thereby promote financial market efficiency. This result holds even when the sell-side production technology is not unique. But sell-side information is subject to underinvestment if producers do not internalize the benefits. The model suggests that fee-based compensation for corporate advisory services diminishes this problem and that market efficiency is undermined by forces steering investment-banking resources toward proprietary trading.

DOI
10.1017/s002210901200035x
Volume
47
Issue
4
Pages
763-794
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib crossref openalex

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