Sequential Search for Corporate Bonds
Working Paper 31904
DOI 10.3386/w31904
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In over-the-counter (OTC) markets, customers must find a counterparty to trade. Little is known about this process, however, because existing data is comprised of transaction records, which are only informative about the end of a search. Leveraging data from the leading trading platform for corporate bonds, we study the search process: we analyze customers’ repeated attempts to trade (successful and unsuccessful). We estimate that it takes two to three days to complete a transaction after an unsuccessful attempt, with substantial variation across trade and customer characteristics. Our analysis offers insights into the sources of trading delays in OTC markets.
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Copy CitationMahyar Kargar, Benjamin Lester, Sébastien Plante, and Pierre-Olivier Weill, "Sequential Search for Corporate Bonds," NBER Working Paper 31904 (2023), https://doi.org/10.3386/w31904.
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Non-Technical Summaries
- In contrast to stocks that are traded on established exchanges such as the New York Stock Exchange, corporate bonds are traded in over-...