IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jbfnac/v32y2005i9-10p1801-1826.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Information Asymmetry and the Bid‐Ask Spread: Evidence From the UK

Author

Listed:
  • Andros Gregoriou
  • Christos Ioannidis
  • Len Skerratt

Abstract

The generally accepted factors that determine the bid‐ask spread are volatility, trading volume and market value (Atkins and Dyl, 1997; Glosten and Harris, 1988; and Menyah and Paudyal, 2000). Following Kim and Verrecchia (1994) we include a measure of the disagreement in analysts’ earnings forecasts in our model of the bid ask spread. This measure serves as a proxy for the informational disadvantage of market makers with respect to informed traders. Market makers respond to the additional risk by increasing the bid‐ask spread. We find that the disagreement amongst analysts is significant for horizons up to and including six months (and with the hypothesised sign) in explaining FTSE 100 company spreads, rendering strong empirical support for our model.

Suggested Citation

  • Andros Gregoriou & Christos Ioannidis & Len Skerratt, 2005. "Information Asymmetry and the Bid‐Ask Spread: Evidence From the UK," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(9‐10), pages 1801-1826, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jbfnac:v:32:y:2005:i:9-10:p:1801-1826
    DOI: 10.1111/j.0306-686X.2005.00648.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0306-686X.2005.00648.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.0306-686X.2005.00648.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Charlie X. Cai & Robert Hudson & Kevin Keasey, 2004. "Intra Day Bid‐Ask Spreads, Trading Volume and Volatility: Recent Empirical Evidence from the London Stock Exchange," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5‐6), pages 647-676, June.
    2. Miller, Edward M, 1977. "Risk, Uncertainty, and Divergence of Opinion," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 32(4), pages 1151-1168, September.
    3. Karl B. Diether & Christopher J. Malloy & Anna Scherbina, 2002. "Differences of Opinion and the Cross Section of Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(5), pages 2113-2141, October.
    4. Glosten, Lawrence R. & Harris, Lawrence E., 1988. "Estimating the components of the bid/ask spread," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 123-142, May.
    5. Atkins, Allen B & Dyl, Edward A, 1997. "Transactions Costs and Holding Periods for Common Stocks," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 309-325, March.
    6. White, Halbert, 1980. "A Heteroskedasticity-Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroskedasticity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(4), pages 817-838, May.
    7. Menyah, Kojo & Paudyal, Krishna, 2000. "The components of bid-ask spreads on the London Stock Exchange," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(11), pages 1767-1785, November.
    8. Heaton, John & Lucas, Deborah J, 1996. "Evaluating the Effects of Incomplete Markets on Risk Sharing and Asset Pricing," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(3), pages 443-487, June.
    9. Venkatesh, P C & Chiang, R, 1986. "Information Asymmetry and the Dealer's Bid-Ask Spread: A Case Study of Earnings and Dividend Announcements," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 41(5), pages 1089-1102, December.
    10. Daniella Acker & Mathew Stalker & Ian Tonks, 2002. "Daily Closing Inside Spreads and Trading Volumes Around Earnings Announcements," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(9‐10), pages 1149-1179.
    11. Hausman, Jerry, 2015. "Specification tests in econometrics," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 38(2), pages 112-134.
    12. Vayanos, Dimitri, 1998. "Transaction Costs and Asset Prices: A Dynamic Equilibrium Model," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 11(1), pages 1-58.
    13. Daniella Acker & Mathew Stalker & Ian Tonks, 2002. "Daily Closing Inside Spreads and Trading Volumes Around Earnings Announcements," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(9‐10), pages 1149-1179.
    14. Charlie X. Cai & Robert Hudson & Kevin Keasey, 2004. "Intra Day Bid‐Ask Spreads, Trading Volume and Volatility: Recent Empirical Evidence from the London Stock Exchange," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5‐6), pages 647-676, June.
    15. Roll, Richard, 1984. "A Simple Implicit Measure of the Effective Bid-Ask Spread in an Efficient Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 39(4), pages 1127-1139, September.
    16. George M. Constantinides, 2005. "Capital Market Equilibrium with Transaction Costs," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Sudipto Bhattacharya & George M Constantinides (ed.), Theory Of Valuation, chapter 7, pages 207-227, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    17. Jarque, Carlos M. & Bera, Anil K., 1980. "Efficient tests for normality, homoscedasticity and serial independence of regression residuals," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 255-259.
    18. Karpoff, Jonathan M, 1986. "A Theory of Trading Volume," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 41(5), pages 1069-1087, December.
    19. Brown, Lawrence D & Rozeff, Michael S, 1978. "The Superiority of Analyst Forecasts as Measures of Expectations: Evidence from Earnings," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 33(1), pages 1-16, March.
    20. Beneish, Messod D. & Gardner, John C., 1995. "Information Costs and Liquidity Effects from Changes in the Dow Jones Industrial Average List," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 30(1), pages 135-157, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xin, Baohua, 2022. "From Lab Experiments to the Field: The Case of a Price Formation Model Based on Laboratory Findings," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    2. Gregoriou, Andros & Gupta, Jairaj & Healy, Jerome, 2016. "Does Islamic banking increase the liquidity of stocks? An application to the Kingdom of Bahrain," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 132-138.
    3. Chen, Tao, 2020. "Does news affect disagreement in global markets?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 174-183.
    4. Dowdell, Thomas D. & Kim, Jang-Chul & Klamm, Bonnie K. & Watson, Marcia Weidenmier, 2013. "Internal control reporting and market liquidity," Research in Accounting Regulation, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 30-40.
    5. Stefano Romito & Clodia Vurro, 2021. "Non‐financial disclosure and information asymmetry: A stakeholder view on US listed firms," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(2), pages 595-605, March.
    6. Martin Angerer & Georg Peter & Sebastian Stoeckl & Thomas Wachter & Matthias Bank & Marco Menichetti, 2018. "Bid-Ask Spread Patterns and the Optimal Timing for Discretionary Liquidity Traders on Xetra," Schmalenbach Business Review, Springer;Schmalenbach-Gesellschaft, vol. 70(3), pages 209-230, July.
    7. Mona Mortazian, 2022. "Liquidity and Volatility of Stocks Moved from the Main Market to the Alternative Investment Market (AIM)," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 29(2), pages 195-220, June.
    8. Chen, Xing & Wu, Chongfeng, 2022. "Retail investor attention and information asymmetry: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    9. Chun-Teck Lye & Tuan-Hock Ng & Kwee-Pheng Lim & Chin-Yee Gan, 2020. "Investor protection and market reaction to unusual market activity replies," International Journal of Emerging Markets, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 16(8), pages 2034-2069, July.
    10. Chen, Jun & Tian, Gaoliang & Yang, Fan, 2020. "Individual investors' propensity to speculate and A-share premiums in China's A-shares and H-shares," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    11. Cai, Charlie X. & McGuinness, Paul B. & Zhang, Qi, 2011. "The pricing dynamics of cross-listed securities: The case of Chinese A- and H-shares," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(8), pages 2123-2136, August.
    12. Frank McGroarty & Owain ap Gwilym & Stephen Thomas, 2007. "The Components of Electronic Inter‐Dealer Spot FX Bid‐Ask Spreads," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(9‐10), pages 1635-1650, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andros Gregoriou & Christos Ioannidis & Len Skerratt, 2005. "Information Asymmetry and the Bid-Ask Spread: Evidence From the UK," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(9-10), pages 1801-1826.
    2. Jagjeev Dosanjh, 2017. "Exchange Initiatives and Market Efficiency: Evidence from the Australian Securities Exchange," PhD Thesis, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney, number 1-2017, January-A.
    3. repec:uts:finphd:34 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Vayanos, Dimitri & Wang, Jiang, 2009. "Liquidity and asset prices: a united framework," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 29303, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Vayanos, Dimitri & Wang, Jiang, 2013. "Market Liquidity—Theory and Empirical Evidence ," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1289-1361, Elsevier.
    6. Mona Mortazian, 2022. "Liquidity and Volatility of Stocks Moved from the Main Market to the Alternative Investment Market (AIM)," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 29(2), pages 195-220, June.
    7. Harris, Terry, 2017. "Earnings announcements and quoted bid-ask spreads of U.S. Bank Holding Companies," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 223-228.
    8. Gregory Connor & Lisa R. Goldberg & Robert A. Korajczyk, 2010. "Portfolio Risk Analysis," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9224.
    9. Eckbo, B. Espen & Norli, Oyvind, 2005. "Liquidity risk, leverage and long-run IPO returns," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 11(1-2), pages 1-35, March.
    10. Dimitri Vayanos & Jiang Wang, 2012. "Market Liquidity -- Theory and Empirical Evidence," NBER Working Papers 18251, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Keunkwan Ryu & Hyun-yeol Shin, 2010. "Liquidity as Price Effect on Time to Sale," Korean Economic Review, Korean Economic Association, vol. 26, pages 307-340.
    12. Geert Bekaert & Campbell R. Harvey & Christian Lundblad, 2007. "Liquidity and Expected Returns: Lessons from Emerging Markets," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 20(6), pages 1783-1831, November.
    13. Sabet, Amir H. & Heaney, Richard, 2015. "Bid-ask spread, information asymmetry and acquisition of oil and gas assets," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 77-84.
    14. Ding, Mingfa & Shen, Mi & Suardi, Sandy, 2022. "Blockholders, tradability and information asymmetry: Evidence from Chinese listed firms," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    15. Chalmers, John M. R. & Kadlec, Gregory B., 1998. "An empirical examination of the amortized spread," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 159-188, May.
    16. Turan G. Bali & Lin Peng & Yannan Shen & Yi Tang, 2013. "Liquidity Shocks and Stock Market Reactions," Koç University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum Working Papers 1304, Koc University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum.
    17. Pastor, Lubos & Stambaugh, Robert F., 2003. "Liquidity Risk and Expected Stock Returns," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 111(3), pages 642-685, June.
    18. Xuanjuan Chen & Jing-Zhi Huang & Zhenzhen Sun & Tong Yao & Tong Yu, 2020. "Liquidity Premium in the Eye of the Beholder: An Analysis of the Clientele Effect in the Corporate Bond Market," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(2), pages 932-957, February.
    19. Choi, Jong-Seo & Choe, Chongwoo, 1998. "Explanatory factors for trading volume responses to annual earnings announcements: Evidence from the Korean stock market," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 6(1-2), pages 193-212, May.
    20. Lischewski, Judith & Voronkova, Svitlana, 2012. "Size, value and liquidity. Do They Really Matter on an Emerging Stock Market?," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 8-25.
    21. Muñoz, Francisco, 2013. "Liquidity and firm investment: Evidence for Latin America," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 18-29.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jbfnac:v:32:y:2005:i:9-10:p:1801-1826. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0306-686X .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.