Impact of Demutualization on Market Quality

The literature on market quality has focused on different perspectives but has overlooked its relationship with governance structure. This study analyzes the impact of a significant change in governance structure; that is demutualization, on market quality. We investigated one hundred thirty-seven non-financial firms listed on Demutualized Pakistan Stock Exchange and found that transaction cost has reduced by demutualization. We used two different proxies for transaction costs such as Thompson and Waller (1986) and Roll (1984) spread. We found that demutualization has a negative and significant impact on both proxies of the transaction cost. We conclude that demutualization has reduced the transaction cost and has improved market quality. Keywords: Demutualization, Governance Structure, Transaction Cost, Market Quality DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/11-28-12 Publication date:October 31st 201