Do Dark Pools Harm Price Discovery?

S-Tier
Journal: Review of Economic Studies
Year: 2021
Volume: 88
Issue: 4
Pages: 1665-1719

Authors (2)

Samuel Antill (not in RePEc) Darrell Duffie (Stanford University)

Score contribution per author:

4.036 = (α=2.02 / 2 authors) × 4.0x S-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

We explain how the common practice of size-discovery trade detracts from overall financial market efficiency. At each of a series of size-discovery sessions, traders report their desired trades, generating allocations of the asset and cash that rely on the most recent exchange price. Traders can thus mitigate exchange price impacts by waiting for size-discovery sessions. This waiting causes socially costly delays in the rebalancing of asset positions across traders. As the frequency of size-discovery sessions is increased, exchange market depth is further lowered by the traders’ reduced incentive to bid aggressively on the exchange, further delaying the rebalancing of positions, and more than offsetting the gains from trade that occur at each of the size-discovery sessions.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:oup:restud:v:88:y:2021:i:4:p:1665-1719
Journal Field
General
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-25