Does Floor Trading Matter?
利用纽约证券交易所因疫情暂停场内交易的自然实验，研究发现场内交易员对提升市场质量至关重要，其缺席导致价差扩大和定价误差增加。
ABSTRACT Although algorithmic trading now dominates financial markets, some exchanges continue to use human floor traders. On March 23, 2020 the NYSE suspended floor trading because of COVID‐19. Using a difference‐in‐differences analysis around the closure of the floor, we find that floor traders are important contributors to market quality. The suspension of floor trading leads to higher spreads and larger pricing errors for treated stocks relative to control stocks. To explore the mechanism, we exploit two partial floor reopenings that have different characteristics. Our finding suggests that in‐person human interaction facilitates the transfer of valuable information that algorithms lack.