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Although markets are intensely social, stock markets are peculiar in that they are normatively anonymous spaces. Anonymity is a difficult-to-achieve social accomplishment in which material identity information is successfully stripped from participants. The academic literature is conflicted regarding the degree to which equity markets are anonymous and how this influences traders’ behavior.

Based on focused, tape-recorded ethnographic interviews, this chapter investigates the work practices of professional investors and brokers to describe the conditions under which brokers veil or reveal investors’ identities to their competitors, and thereby shed light on how anonymity is socially produced (or eroded) in global stock markets.

The social structure of brokered financial markets places brokers in the awkward situation of sitting in an information-poor structural location for so-called “fundamental information” while being paid to share information with professional investors who sit in an information-rich structural location. A resolution to this material and social dilemma is that brokers can erode the market’s anonymity by gifting identity information (“order flow”) – the previous, prospective, or pending trades of their clients’ competitors – thereby providing traders a competitive advantage. They share identity information in three types of performances: transparent relationships, masked relationships, and the transformation of illicit material identity information into licit and sharable “fundamental” information. Each performance partly erodes transaction-level and market-level anonymity while simultaneously partially supporting anonymity.

Laws and regulations requiring brokers’ confidentiality of their clients’ trades are easily and systematically eluded. Policy makers and regulators may opt to respond by increasing surveillance and mechanization of brokers’ work so as to promote a normatively anonymous market. Alternatively, they may opt to question the value of promoting and policing anonymity in financial markets by revising insider trading regulations.

Even well-regulated markets are semi-anonymous spaces due to the systematic exposure of investors’ identities to competitors by their shared brokers on a daily basis. This finding provides an additional explanation for how professional investors can imitate one another (“herd”) as well as why subpopulations of investors often trade so similarly to one another.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the introduction of anonymous trading on the liquidity of New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX)‐listed stocks.

The paper examines the impact of the switch to anonymous trading on effective spreads and adverse selection costs using both univariate and multivariate approaches and data spanning a 240‐day event window period. The paper also compares the NZX's share of trading in cross‐listed stocks before and after the switch to anonymous trading to determine if the change in market architecture improved the NZX's competitiveness vis‐à‐vis the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX).

The paper finds that effective spreads and adverse selection costs increased following the switch to anonymous trading across the broad range of NZX50 stocks, consistent with an increase in information risk in the post‐event period. However, the paper also finds that the switch to anonymous trading improved the NZX's market share in trading in cross‐listed stocks vis‐à‐vis the ASX.

The results show that market liquidity deteriorates in a more opaque environment due to the greater information risk facing investors. This is in sharp contrast to prior research, which reports that similar changes in pre‐trade transparency on other exchanges have improved market liquidity. The results suggest that although institutional investors and the NZX itself might well have benefited from the switch to anonymous trading, liquidity demanders face higher transaction costs as a result.

This study investigates whether broker anonymity impairs the ability of the market to detect informed trading in the lead up to takeover announcements. Our research represents the first study in this area to analyse the effects of broker anonymity in the context of significant information asymmetry. Results indicate that informed traders are less detected, and therefore better off when broker identifiers are concealed. This finding has important policy implications for exchange officials deciding whether or not to reveal broker identifiers surrounding trades, especially considering that almost all prior research suggests that broker anonymity is correlated with improved liquidity.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the changes in the price impact of trades in the major Korean stock market following the introduction of disclosure to all traders of the top five brokers on the buy-side and the top five brokers on the sell-side of trades in real time for each stock in the KOSDAQ market.

The paper uses several alternative metrics for the price impact of trades. The study applies estimation methodology that accounts for the potential endogeneity of other market quality proxies, which are used as control variables in price impact regressions, by utilizing two-stage-least-square methods with fixed effect specification.

This study finds that the permanent price impact (information effect) of both buyer- and seller-initiated trades increases, which indicates that information is disseminated quicker in a transparent market. Uninformed trades have a larger permanent price impact than informed trades on both the buy and sell sides. The liquidity price effects are found to be mixed for buys and sells.

The study supports the current policy of the Korean Exchange to publicly display the five most active broker IDs on both the buy and sell sides, as it attracts both informed and liquidity traders, leading to faster price discovery in a more transparent market. However, a future study which analyzes the change in the market quality in both local markets would provide a complete picture of the effects of the policy.

Earlier studies documenting the effect of broker ID disclosure on market quality used effective spreads, market depth or order book imbalance as market quality measures. This study contributes to the existing literature by examining the changes in direct measures of the private information effect and liquidity effect of trades in a stock market – the Korean Stock Exchange – when the other part of the exchange (the KOSDAQ stock market) shifts to public broker ID transparency at the same transparency level.

This is a conceptual overview of transparency from the global and interdisciplinary perspectives. It briefly develops a conceptual framework on transparency as to how it relates to governance and market environments, outlines conditions for transparency, and presents hypotheses concerning the level of transparency in a global world. It then summarizes 12 papers included in the research volume.

The viability of online anonymity is questioned in today’s online environment where many technologies enable tracking and identification of individuals. In light of the shortcomings of the government, industry and consumers in protecting anonymity, it is clear that a new perspective for ensuring anonymity is needed. Where current stakeholders have failed to protect anonymity, some proponents argue that economic models exist for valuation of anonymity. By placing a monetary value on anonymity through Rawls’ concept of primary goods, it is possible to create a marketplace for anonymity, therefore allowing users full control of how their personal data is used. This paper aims to explore the creation of a data marketplace, offering users the possibility of engaging with companies and other entities to sell and auction personal data. Importantly, participation in a marketplace does not sacrifice one’s anonymity, as there are different levels of anonymity in online systems.

The paper uses a conceptual framework based on the abstractions of anonymity and data valuation.

The manuscript constructs a conceptual foundation for exploring the development and deployment of a personal data marketplace. By suggesting features allowing individuals’ control of their personal data, and properly establishing monetary valuation of one’s personal data, it is argued that individuals will undertake a more proactive management of personal data.

An overview of the available services and products offering increased anonymity is explored, in turn, illustrating the beginnings of a market response for anonymity as a valuable good. By placing a monetary value on individuals’ anonymity, it is reasoned that individuals will more consciously protect their anonymity in ways where legislation and other practices (i.e. privacy policies, marketing opt-out) have failed.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impacts of the size and timing of sales compensations, the management stringency of the insurer and the insurance broker's own moral views on product recommendations made by the brokers.

The data used in this research were gathered from life insurance broker companies in Taiwan.

The results showed that the sales compensations, perceived leniency of the insurer's underwriting and claim policy would affect the product recommendations made by the brokers.

Insurance brokers are one of the most important marketing channels in the insurance industry. However, using the insurance brokers to sell insurance may result in some ethical problems. For example, some insurance brokers may sell insurance to high-risk customers because the high-risk customers may prefer to buy more insurance and that means more sales compensations can be earned. The findings of this research may have some implications for insurance management and insurance regulation.

This study contributes to the understanding of insurance brokers' responses to adverse selection problems (high-risk customers may prefer to buy more insurance) and product recommendation decisions. The issue has been less mentioned in the financial regulation literature.

This paper aims to explore the relationship between human trafficking brokers and trafficking victims by using examples from both the international labour and human organ trafficking industries. It proposes an evolution in the brokerage process from geographic to online networks and how this alters the nature of the relationships between parties. The study aims to expand the understanding of contemporary trafficking brokerage networks in developing areas.

The paper opted for an ethnographic study which involved living among trafficking victims in 21 developing countries during the period of 2008-2015; 17 cases are presented as exemplars of the trafficking industry environment, told from the perspective of both trafficking victims and the brokers who have profited from them. The data were complemented by commentary, which developed common themes across both labour and human organ trafficking.

The paper provides insights about how change in the brokerage process is brought about by the shift from geographic to online networks. It suggests that trafficking operations have learned how to use online social media and the dark Web. Moreover, it illustrates the impact of these networks on the power imbalance in human trafficking and the experience of its victims.

The study is limited to labour and human organ trafficking in developing nations, but the concepts may have wider implications in other forms of human trafficking.

The paper includes implications for the development of a framework to understand the impact of online trafficking networks.

This paper fulfils an identified need to study how human trafficking networks are evolving in the digital age.

The article explores the role of information brokers and information consultants, their development, reasons for their emergence, their main characteristics and activities and their relations with libraries. Finally, the future of information brokers/consultants is examined.

The real estate industry is an e‐commerce anomaly. Although the overall growth of ecommerce is driven by the business‐to‐business sector, the majority of real estate e‐commerce is derived from its retail‐oriented residential sector. This study examines the structure of residential and commercial real estate websites, with the goal of determining whether some patterns of content might increase the quality and quantity of information available to buyers and sellers thereby contributing to the disparity between residential and commercial real estate e‐commerce growth. The results of the research show residential real estate websites offer richer informational content than commercial real estate websites. No significant differences are found for the user friendliness and functionality (ie ancillary services) provided by residential and commercial real estate websites.