ساختار بازار و امور مالی شرکت ها

This article provides a brief overview of the importance of market microstructure research and identifies existing areas of research that focus on links between microstructure and corporate finance. Each of the special issue articles is then summarized with particular attention given to the research contribution of the article and to the links explored between microstructure and corporate finance.

While the growing complexity of both theoretical constructs and empirical methodologies leads to ever more specialized research, a healthy preoccupation with the meaning and relevance of our research still ensures we never loose sight of the forest for the trees.2 Furthermore, an honest fascination with the myriad details and nuances of our work ensures that every tree gets more than a passing glance. What Rilke so elegantly reminds us, is to devote at least some of our attention to those topics that lie between established lines of inquiry. This special issue explores just such a set of topics—those that combine corporate finance with market microstructure.3 While the articles collected here are by no means exhaustive, they do suggest two paths down which one might proceed. First, there are empirical methods in market microstructure that can be used to evaluate theories in corporate finance. For example, there are measures of the degree to which some individuals are better informed than others and these can be used to evaluate links between asymmetric information and corporate decisions. The second path is to examine the influence of microstructure outcomes on corporate decisions. In this case, the microstructure of markets may influence corporate strategy.4 The goal of this introduction is twofold. First, to place microstructure research itself into a broad context. Specifically, I will briefly address the general relevance of microstructure issues and discuss some existing research that links microstructure and corporate finance. Second, to introduce each of the articles in this collection and highlight the contribution of the work in light of both microstructure and corporate finance literatures.

Each of the papers in this special issue advances our understanding of a specific corporate decision and raises interesting questions for future study. More important, the variety of papers provides a sense of the breadth of possible research that can be generated by linking corporate finance and market microstructure. From theory to empirical methods, from global markets to market efficiency, from spinoffs to dividends, this special issue certainly covers a lot of ground—and suggests that there is much yet to be done.