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The Impact of the French Securities Transaction Tax on Market Liquidity and Volatility

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  • Gunther Capelle-Blancard

    (EconomiX - EconomiX - UPN - Université Paris Nanterre - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Olena Havrylchyk

    (EconomiX - EconomiX - UPN - Université Paris Nanterre - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

In this paper, we assess the impact of the securities transaction tax (STT) introduced in France in 2012 on market liquidity and volatility. To identify causality, we rely on the unique design of this tax that is imposed only on large French firms, all listed on Euronext. This provides two reliable control groups (smaller French firms and foreign firms also listed on Euronext) and allows using difference-in-difference methodology to isolate the impact of the tax from other economic changes occurring simultaneously. We find that the STT has reduced trading volume, but we find no effect on theoretically based measures of liquidity, such as price impact, and no significant effect on volatility. The results are robust if we rely on different control groups (German stocks included in DAX and MDAX), analyze dynamic effects or construct a control group by propensity score matching.

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  • Gunther Capelle-Blancard & Olena Havrylchyk, 2014. "The Impact of the French Securities Transaction Tax on Market Liquidity and Volatility," Working Papers hal-04141335, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-04141335
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-04141335
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    Cited by:

    1. Gunther Capelle-Blancard, 2018. "What is the Point of (the Hundreds of Thousands of Billions of) Stock Transactions?," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 60(1), pages 15-33, March.
    2. Taneli Mäkinen & Francesco Palazzo, 2017. "The double bind of asymmetric information in over-the-counter markets," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 1128, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    3. Hvozdyk, Lyudmyla & Rustanov, Serik, 2016. "The effect of financial transaction tax on market liquidity and volatility: An Italian perspective," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 62-78.
    4. Yok-Yong Lee & M. H. Yahya & A. M. Bany-Ariffin & S. Aslam, 2018. "Leverage Effect and Switching of Market Efficiency Post Goods and Services Tax (GST) Imposition," International Business Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 11(3), pages 162-178, March.
    5. Nidhal Mgadmi & Khemaies Bougatef, 2017. "Modeling volatility of the French stock market," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 37(2), pages 988-998.
    6. Capelle-Blancard, Gunther, 2016. "The abrogation of the “Impôt sur les opérations de bourse” did not foster the French stock market," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 17(C), pages 257-266.
    7. Kang, Sang Hoon & Maitra, Debasish & Dash, Saumya Ranjan & Brooks, Robert, 2019. "Dynamic spillovers and connectedness between stock, commodities, bonds, and VIX markets," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    8. Ligot, Stephanie & Gillet, Roland & Veryzhenko, Iryna, 2021. "Intraday volatility smile: Effects of fragmentation and high frequency trading on price efficiency," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    9. Chaudhry, Sajid Mukhtar & Mullineux, Andrew & Agarwal, Natasha, 2015. "Balancing the regulation and taxation of banking," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 38-52.
    10. Cumming, Douglas & Johan, Sofia, 2019. "Capital-market effects of securities regulation: Prior conditions, implementation, and enforcement revisited," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 31(C).
    11. Veryzhenko, Iryna & Harb, Etienne & Louhichi, Waël & Oriol, Nathalie, 2017. "The impact of the French financial transaction tax on HFT activities and market quality," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 307-315.
    12. Capelle-Blancard, Gunther, 2017. "Curbing the growth of stock trading? Order-to-trade ratios and financial transaction taxes," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 48-73.
    13. Benoît Carmichael & Jean Armand Gnagne & Kevin Moran, 2015. "Securities Transactions Taxes and Financial Crises," CIRANO Working Papers 2015s-23, CIRANO.
    14. Jean†Edouard Colliard & Peter Hoffmann, 2017. "Financial Transaction Taxes, Market Composition, and Liquidity," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(6), pages 2685-2716, December.
    15. Deng, Yongheng & Liu, Xin & Wei, Shang-Jin, 2018. "One fundamental and two taxes: When does a Tobin tax reduce financial price volatility?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(3), pages 663-692.
    16. Eichfelder, Sebastian & Lau, Mona, 2016. "Financial transaction taxes: Announcement effects, short-run effects, and long-run effects," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 211, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    17. Eichfelder, Sebastian & Lau, Mona & Noth, Felix, 2018. "The impact of financial transaction taxes on stock markets: Short-run effects, long-run effects, and migration," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 228, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    18. Eichfelder, Sebastian & Noack, Mona & Noth, Felix, 2022. "The impact of financial transaction taxes on stock markets: Short-run effects, long-run effects, and reallocation of trading activity," IWH Discussion Papers 12/2022, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    19. Yin, Zhichao & Peng, Hongfeng & Xiao, Weiguo & Xiao, Zumian, 2022. "Capital control and monetary policy coordination: Tobin tax revisited," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    20. Gunther Capelle-Blancard, 2017. "À quoi servent les (centaines de milliers de milliards de) transactions boursières ?," Revue d'économie financière, Association d'économie financière, vol. 0(3), pages 37-58.
    21. Capelle-Blancard, Gunther & Khemakhem, Emna, 2024. "The impact of the capital gains tax on the Korean derivatives market," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    22. Paulo Pereira Silva, 2023. "Securities transaction taxes and stock price informativeness: evidence for France and Italy," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 37(3), pages 325-345, September.
    23. Eichfelder, Sebastian & Lau, Mona & Noth, Felix, 2017. "Financial transaction taxes: Announcement effects, short-run effects, and long-run effects," IWH Discussion Papers 4/2017, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    24. Reaz, Md & Mahat, Fauziah & Dahir, Ahmed Mohamed & Sahabuddin, Mohammad & Al Mahi, Abu Saad Md Masnun, 2017. "Exchange rate volatility and financial performance of agriculture firms in Malaysia: An empirical analysis using GARCH, wavelet and system GMM," Business and Economic Horizons (BEH), Prague Development Center (PRADEC), vol. 13(3).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Financial transaction tax; Securities transaction tax; Tobin tax; Volatility; Liquidity; Euronext;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies

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