عنوان

Bullion, bills and arbitrage :

Number

TLets571097

Title Proper

Bullion, bills and arbitrage :

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

Ling-Fan, Li

Title Proper by Another Author

exchange markets in fourteenth- to seventeenth-century Europe

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London)

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

2012

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

Ph.D.

Body granting the degree

London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London)

Text preceding or following the note

2012

Text of Note

Two drawbacks of current empirical studies on late medieval financial market integration are: the use of low frequency data; and the lack of a benchmark for comparison. As a result, there is a tendency to underestimate the degree of integration and one has no clear idea about whether the estimated degree of integration is high or low by the standards of the time. Consequently, there is not yet a satisfactory answer as to how integrated and efficient financial markets were in the late Middle Ages and early modern era. In tackling these two problems, this thesis employs monthly and weekly exchange rates to measure the degree of exchange market integration and the results are judged using the speed of communication as a benchmark since the flow of information played a critical role in financial arbitrage. Therefore, this thesis is able to show that exchange markets were already well integrated in the late fourteenth century. From then to the late seventeenth century, the high speed of adjustment to profitable opportunities was maintained, but the transaction costs associated with arbitrage fell over time. The reduction in transaction cost may be attributed to the financial innovations that took place in the sixteenth century. This thesis also finds that the type of information related to shocks received by economic agents had a decisive impact on the speed of price adjustment. The more explicit the information, the more efficiently the market responded to shocks.

HC Economic History and Conditions

Ling-Fan, Li

London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London)

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y