Do stock prices of publicly listed companies respond to changes in transaction costs? Using the SEC’s pilot program that increased the tick size for approximately 1,200 randomly chosen stocks, we find a stock price decrease between 1.75% and 3.2% for small spread stocks affected by the larger tick size relative to a control group. We find that the increase in the present value of transaction costs accounts for a small percentage of the price decrease. We study channels of price variation due to changes in expected returns: information risk, investor horizon, and liquidity risk. The evidence suggests that trading frictions affect the cost of capital.
Albuquerque et al. (Fri,) studied this question.