Essays on Stock Exchange Efficiency, Business Models, and Governance

The stock exchange industry has been subject to unprecedented dynamics in recent decades, particularly in Europe and the US. Exchanges are no longer organized as not-for-profit mutuals and havelong lost their almost club-like atmosphere. Instead many of them have converted into commercial enterprises, abandoned their consensual governance structure and replaced the trading floor with an electronic trading system. The members (andcustomers) of the exchages sold their interest in the exchange to international investors that - incontrast to the members - have a purely financialinterest in the exchange. This changes have raisedconcerns amongst both regulators and marketparticipants, however, for somewhat different reasons.Why did we see these significant changes in theorganization of this industry and what are theirconsequences? This book, which is a collection ofarticles that represent the dissertation of theauthor, strives to answer the raised issues bothempirically and theoretically. The goal is to providea deeper understanding for the underlying economicsin this industry and explain the rationale for thestrategic actions undertaken by its main participants.