Essays on technological innovation in finance

Abstract

Innovations in financial markets have been numerous lately. Within two decades, most of the trading activity has been done electronically and trading rooms have become deserted as computers have been able to make autonomous trading decisions more rapidly than in the past; information is now spreading at the speed of light; and a plethora of electronic currencies, whose reliability is based on cryptographic proofs rather than trust, have been issued. There is no shortage of examples, from market finance to corporate finance. Every field is affected by the digitalization phenomenon: online investing and online financial advice, digital currencies and paperless payments, crowdfunding, or high-frequency trading, among others. In this thesis, we provide three empirical analyses of how some of these innovations affect financial markets.(ECGE - Sciences économiques et de gestion) -- UCL, 202