Dark Market Share around Earnings Announcements and Speed of Resolution of Investor Disagreement

This study examines how the market share of dark venues changes at earnings announcements. Our analysis shows a statistically significant increase in dark market share in the weeks prior to, during, and following the earnings announcement. We also predict and find evidence that increases in dark market share around earnings announcements are higher for firms with high quality accounting information. In addition, we find a positive relation between the change in dark market share and the speed of resolution of investor disagreement-a key dimension of informational efficiency, which suggests that dark trading is associated with an improvement in market quality. How market fragmentation changes around news events, the role accounting information plays in market fragmentation, and how changes in market fragmentation relate to market quality can help provide insights to securities regulators.

Order Routing Decisions for a Fragmented Market: A Review

This paper reviews the up-to-date theoretical, empirical, and experimental literature related to the trading venue choice in the context of the fragmented equity markets. We provide a brief background on the history of trading fragmentation in the equity market and its determinants. We discuss the direct and indirect impacts of the market fragmentation on market quality in various dimensions, including liquidity, volatility, and price efficiency. Next, we identify possible determinants and channels from theoretical and empirical studies that could explain order routing decisions and present the possible directions for future research. Finally, we discuss the major regulatory reforms in the U.S. equity market on routing venue decisions. This topic is relevant in current times when phenomena such as “GameStop Frenzy” have drawn significant attention to commission-free trading venues.

Exchange Competition, Entry, and Welfare

We assess the consequences for market quality and welfare of different entry regimes and exchange pricing policies. To do so, we integrate a microstructure model with a free-entry, exchange competition model where exchanges have market power in technological services. Free-entry delivers superior liquidity and welfare outcomes vis-`a-vis an unregulated monopoly, but entry can be excessive or insufficient. Depending on the extent of the monopolist's technological services undersupply compared to the first best, a planner can achieve a higher welfare controlling entry or platform fees.

Improving the Quality Management System in the Locomotive Repair Shops of the Trans-Baikal Railway

In the context of high competition in railway transportation market, quality management is becoming an important prerequisite for attracting customers and meeting their needs, gaining and retaining market share and increasing work efficiency. The current quality management system at the locomotive repair shops has a number of drawbacks that result in long-term idle time of the rolling stock for maintenance or repair and significant expenses. The article deals with the problems of defining the concepts “quality management” and “quality improvement” for locomotive repair shops. The authors analyze the current QMS in the locomotive repair shops of the Trans-Baikal Railway, make a SWOT-analysis, and develop a number of measures and management decisions for improving the quality. An objectives tree for QMS and Ishikawa's Cause-and-Effect-Diagram of inconsistencies are used to determine problems in the locomotive repair shops and propose ways of eliminating inconsistencies in each element of QMS.

IS BITCOIN IMMUNE TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC?

This study examines how Bitcoin’s trading characteristics react to the COVID-19 pandemic, using detailed futures trading data from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The results show that volume-weighted Bitcoin futures return responds positively to the spikes of public interest. Meanwhile, the surges of pandemic information do not harm market quality. Volume, bid-ask spread, and trading frequency remain stable, indicating that the positive price reaction is not a result of a few small uninformed trades. Bitcoin's conditional beta on the S&P 500 index drops to near zero, while the conditional beta on gold more than doubles. These results indicate that traders have been using Bitcoin as a safe-haven asset after the pandemic outbreak.

Factors affecting the purchase behaviour of farmers’ markets consumers

The main purpose of this study is to determine the factors that motivate consumers who shop at farmers’ markets. The data for this study were gathered from questionnaires of 363 consumers from eight farmers’ markets in seven districts of Izmir province, Turkey. To reveal the consumer profile of the farmers’ markets examined in this study, consumer segments were determined using factor and cluster analysis. Two different consumer segments—‘conventional’ and ‘conscious’—were identified in the farmers’ markets examined. ‘Conventional Consumers’ reflect typical consumer behaviours and give more importance to factors such as the location of and access to the market, quality and freshness of the products, activities at and around the market and the availability and variety of products. ‘Conscious Consumers’, in contrast, represent a group that is more sensitive about food safety. The majority of consumers (63.64%) who visited farmers’ markets were from the Conscious Consumer segment. The majority of the consumers who visit farmers’ markets are conscious consumers, requiring the strategies related to these markets to be revised. Farmers’ markets should be improved in terms of selecting vendors, food safety, physical facilities and social activities.