Abstract

The thesis consists of three essays. The first essay examines whether an international trade venue clientele effect exists for Canadian shares cross-listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), American Stock Exchange (AMEX) and National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation System (NASDAQ). The main hypothesis states that for trades of Canadian cross-listed shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE) and U.S. stock markets, assets with increasing (decreasing) trade costs as measured by the relative effective half-spreads across trade venues are held in portfolios with the same or expected increasing (decreasing) relative investors' holding periods. The results support this hypothesis for the Canadian cross-listed shares whose trades are executed on the TSE and each U.S. trade venue. The findings suggests that the TSE has consistently lost its share of executed order flow relative to the U.S. primary trade venues, and that this loss is associated with increased relative trade costs on the TSE. The second essay analyzes the determinants of the price impact at the announcement and issue dates for domestic and international seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) for Canadian shares cross-listed on the NYSE/AMEX or NASDAQ. In addition, it analyzes whether the determinants for domestic and international SEOs are the same for shares cross-listed on the NYSE/AMEX and NASDAQ, respectively. The findings indicate that the determinants of the market reaction at the announcement and issue dates for the SEOs of the Canadian cross-listed shares differ for all the studied samples and are unambiguously dependent on the SEO geographic placement and cross-listing U.S. trade venue. Finally, the third essay investigates whether the determinants of underwriter fees are the same for domestic and non-domestic SEOs by Canadian firms cross-listed on the NYSE/AMEX or NASDAQ. The results clearly indicate that the determinants of underwriting fees differ for the domestic and non-domestic SEOs. After controlling for differences in other relevant fee determinants, the underwriter fees for non-domestic SEOs are significantly higher for the Canadian shares cross-listed on the NASDAQ compared to those cross-listed on the NYSE/AMEX.