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Market access and transparency: the Genoa and Milan stock exchanges from Italian Unification to World War I

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2023

Angelo Riva Open the ORCID record for Angelo Riva [Opens in a new window]
Angelo Riva*
Affiliation:
European Business School – Paris, Paris School of Economics and Institut Louis Bachelier
*
Dr Angelo Riva, European Business School – Paris, Paris 75015, France, email: angelo.riva@ebs-paris.com.
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Abstract

This article focuses on the conflicts over market access rules on the two primary Italian stock exchanges, Milan and Genoa. These conflicts disrupted the quality of information produced by the two markets. Official brokers aimed to defend their monopoly on brokerage and capture rents by limiting market access. Banks wanted wider access so as to avoid paying these rents, create an opaque market and maximize the benefit from their informational advantage. At the turn of the twentieth century, the Milan Exchange implemented a transparent market organization while the Genoa Exchange remained opaque, creating a complementarity between them which fostered the development of the securities market overall. When in 1907 a violent crisis erupted in the dominant Genoa Exchange, legislation was adopted to harmonize the organization of the Italian exchanges.

Keywords

market accesstransparencyfinancial marketsItalypre-1913

JEL classification

G20: General N23: Europe: Pre-1913 G29: Other
Type
Article
Information
Financial History Review , Volume 29 , Special Issue 3: Special issue on stock exchange price currents, financial information and market transparency , December 2022 , pp. 358 - 375
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Association for Banking and Financial History

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Footnotes

I would like to thank Pierre-Cyrille Hautcoeur, Joost Jonker, the Editor, two anonymous referees as well as the participants at the ‘Price Currents, Financial Information and Market Transparency’ workshops for their valuable comments.

References

Archives

ACOCMI, Archivio della Camera di Commercio di Milano.Google Scholar
ACOCMI, AC, Archivio della Camera di Commercio di Milano, Atti del Consiglio.Google Scholar
AdSGE, CoC, Archivio di Stato di Genova, Fondo Camera di Commercio.Google Scholar
AdSGE, CoC, Reg., Archivio di Stato di Genova, Fondo Camera di Commercio, Registri dei Processi Verbali del Consiglio della Camera di Commercio.Google Scholar
ACOCGE, SYN, Archivio della Camera di Commercio di Genova, Sindacato degli Agenti di Cambio, Registri dei processi verbali del Sindacato.Google Scholar

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