The Role of Transaction Costs for Financial Volatility: Evidence from the Paris Bourse

48 Pages Posted: 20 Jun 2003

See all articles by Harald Hau

Harald Hau

University of Geneva - Geneva Finance Research Institute (GFRI); Swiss Finance Institute; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

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Date Written: November 2002

Abstract

Minimum price variation rules (tick size rules) in the French stock market prior to 1999 provide a natural experiment on the role of transaction costs for financial price volatility. For stock prices above French francs (FF) 500, the minimal tick size for quotes increases from FF 0.1 to FF 1. This tick size increase generates a 20% higher median effective spread and therefore artificially inflates transaction costs. Using the range of the quoted mid-price as a tick size robust volatility metric, we calculate 47,213 hourly volatility measures for all CAC40 stocks in the price range from FF 400 to FF 600 and measure the volatility impact of the transaction cost increase at FF 500. We find that the median hourly range volatility is approximately 16% higher in the high cost regime. Panel regressions confirm this result at a high level of statistical significance. In the light of this evidence, higher transaction costs in general, and security transaction taxes in particular, should be considered as volatility increasing.

Keywords: Tobin tax, realized volatility, effective spread, tick size

JEL Classification: F30, G10, G14

Suggested Citation

Hau, Harald, The Role of Transaction Costs for Financial Volatility: Evidence from the Paris Bourse (November 2002). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=418649

Harald Hau (Contact Author)

University of Geneva - Geneva Finance Research Institute (GFRI) ( email )

40 Boulevard du Pont d'Arve
Geneva 4, Geneva 1211
Switzerland

Swiss Finance Institute

Switzerland

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

London
United Kingdom

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, DE-81679
Germany

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