The Impact of Specialist Firm Acquisitions on Market Quality

Abstract

Acquisitions among specialist firms can increase specialist firm size, capitalization, and market concentration, and thus potentially have important effects on market quality. We examine the impact of NYSE specialist firm acquisitions on market quality and find that while stocks traded by both acquiring and target specialist firms show significant improvement in several market quality measures following acquisitions, similar changes are evident in price- and volume-matched control stocks traded by specialist firms not involved in acquisitions. We conclude that specialist firm acquisitions either do not improve market quality, or improve market quality, but competitive and other pressures (resulting partly from the acquisitions themselves) force improvements in market quality for control stocks also. Either interpretation implies that specialist acquisitions have not had deleterious effects on market quality.