Introductory Comments: Bloomfield and O'Hara, and Flood, Huisman, Koedijk, and Mahieu

Abstract

The following two articles, “Market Transparency: Who Wins and Who Loses?” by Robert Bloomfield and Maureen O'Hara (hereafter BOH) and “Quote Disclosure and Price Discovery in Multiple Dealer Financial Markets” by Mark D. Flood, Ronald Huisman, Kees G. Koedijk, and Ronald J. Mahieu (hereafter FHKM) are the first two experimental microstructure articles that the Review of Financial Studies (hereafter RFS) has published. We, the editors of the RFS, hope that they are not the last. Therefore, I take the unconventional step of introducing the two articles. The articles speak for themselves, of course, and they need no additional motivation from me. Furthermore, it is not my goal to either praise or critique the articles; you, the reader, will do that. It is hoped that this introduction will reveal my perspective as a (to date) nonexperimentalist editor. This should help inform the decision to submit future experimental microstructure articles to the RFS.