We study the capital market effects of information centralization by exploiting the staggered implementation of digital storage and access platforms for regulated financial information (Officially Appointed Mechanisms, or OAMs) in the European Union. We find that the implementation of OAMs results in significant improvements in capital market liquidity, consistent with the notion that OAMs lower investors' processing costs. The findings are more pronounced when processing costs are high to begin with, that is, when firms (1) are small and receive low business press coverage and (2) have high levels of retail ownership. We then identify a mechanism through which centralization facilitates capital market effects: information spillovers. First, we find that liquidity improvements are larger when OAMs have features that easily allow investors to search for peer firm information. Second, liquidity improvements are larger for firms with a high share of industry peers operating on the same OAM and for firms with a high share of small, low-coverage peers on that OAM. Third, around the annual report release dates of peer firms, focal-firm liquidity improves and focal-peer stock return synchronicity increases. Overall, our evidence suggests that, even in a modern information age, information centralization improves capital market liquidity and facilitates the acquisition and use of peer firm information.

中文翻译：

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集中监管金融信息对资本市场的影响


我们通过利用欧盟监管金融信息（官方指定机制，OAM）的数字存储和访问平台的交错实施来研究信息集中化对资本市场的影响。我们发现，OAM 的实施可以显着改善资本市场的流动性，这与 OAM 降低投资者处理成本的观点是一致的。当处理成本一开始就很高时，即当公司（1）规模较小且商业媒体报道较少且（2）零售所有权水平较高时，这一发现更为明显。然后，我们确定了一种中心化促进资本市场效应的机制：信息溢出。首先，我们发现，当 OAM 具有允许投资者轻松搜索同行公司信息的功能时，流动性改善更大。其次，对于在同一 OAM 上运营的行业同行比例较高的公司以及在该 OAM 上运营的小型、低覆盖率同行比例较高的公司，流动性改善更大。第三，在同业公司年报发布前后，焦点公司流动性改善，焦点同业股票回报同步性增强。总体而言，我们的证据表明，即使在现代信息时代，信息集中也可以提高资本市场的流动性，并促进同行公司信息的获取和使用。