Market Microstructure

"Market Microstructure provides a rich new theoretical analysis of the role of firms in markets. It argues convincingly that by acting as intermediaries, firms can alleviate the problems of adverse selection, moral hazard, and high search costs, and can encourage valuable investment. Using elegantly simple models, this book offers deep new insights into why firms emerge and how markets function." Paul Milgrom, Stanford University "Dan Spulber has been among the foremost contributors to the recent research on the role of firms as intermediaries (i.e., as middlemen). Different researchers have focused on differing roles for the firm, including reducing costs due to asymmetric information, search and matching, adverse selection, transactions costs, and agency. His new book provides a clear presentation of these developments that is outstanding for its breadth and depth, and for the order and organization he brings to a challenging topic." James Friedman, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill "Spulber's book provides an innovative and comprehensive look at two important issues--the formation and boundaries of firms and the microstructure of markets. This book does an excellent job of combining different models in a unified approach to studying firms and markets. I believe it will be an excellent text for students of this subject. " Chaim Fershtman, Tel Aviv University