Trade informativeness and liquidity in Bitcoin markets

Liquid markets are driven by information asymmetries and the injection of new information in trades into market prices. Where market matching uses an electronic limit order book (LOB), limit orders traders may make suboptimal price and trade decisions based on new but incomplete information arriving with market orders. This paper measures the information asymmetries in Bitcoin trading limit order books on the Kraken platform, and compares these to prior studies on equities LOB markets. In limit order book markets, traders have the option of waiting to supply liquidity through limit orders, or immediately demanding liquidity through market orders or aggressively priced limit orders. In my multivariate analysis, I control for volatility, trading volume, trading intensity and order imbalance to isolate the effect of trade informativeness on book liquidity. The current research offers the first empirical study of Glosten (1994) to yield a positive, and credibly large transaction cost parameter. Trade and LOB datasets in this study were several orders of magnitude larger than any of the prior studies. Given the poor small sample properties of GMM, it is likely that this substantial increase in size of datasets is essential for validating the model. The research strongly supports Glosten’s seminal theoretical model of limit order book markets, showing that these are valid models of Bitcoin markets. This research empirically tested and confirmed trade informativeness as a prime driver of market liquidity in the Bitcoin market.

Dealing with the Competition of English-language Export Editions: Voices from the Dutch Trade Book Market

This project explores the responses of the Dutch trade book market to the ever-increasing influx of Anglophone publications. Based on in-depth interviews (n = 42) carried out between 2015 and 2017 with Dutch publishing professionals, this research identifies the approaches and strategies they adopt to defend their market from the competition of English-language editions. Findings show that the main defence strategy used is to release translations simultaneously with English-language originals, but that this creates significant pressures on both publishers and translators. Concomitantly, there has been an increasing focus on Dutch originals and non-Anglophone books. The strategies and approaches documented in this study may be of interest for scholars and practitioners in relation to other book markets and linguistic areas facing similar circumstances.

Publishing under COVID-19 in small book markets

The paper is based on a survey that was conducted among publishers in Slovakia, Iceland, Lithuania and Slovenia in May and August 2020. The paper looks at how publishers reacted to the COVID-19 crisis in their respective countries, what was its impact on book sales and how did the publishers adapt the production of new books to changed circumstances. In addition, the paper analyses changed attitudes of publishers towards e-books and other digital book formats that become more popular in lockdown times. The research revealed that COVID-19 lockdowns resulted in decreased sales of printed books in all four small book markets. However, sales of e-books and audiobooks slightly increased during that period. This increase in digital sales did not contribute significantly to overall results of book industries due to its small market share in all four countries.

Interview with G. Willow Wilson

This interview with G. Willow Wilson explores Wilson’s perspective on Ms. Marvel as a diverse character—a diverse South Asian Muslim teen female character who happens to be a polymorph—in this historical political moment, as well as in the context of the history of comic books. Wilson and Mir also discuss comic book markets, shifts in readerships, and the future of comic books. The character and story of Ms. Marvel as a Muslim American teen help readers reflect on contemporary public political discourse.

Strategies for Success? Evaluating the Rise of Catalan Literature

This chapter uses an account of the twenty-first century efforts of Catalan literature to break into English-language book markets as a means of examining the opportunities, challenges and strategies that present themselves to smaller literatures in a changing reading and book-buying environment. The chapter first explains the historical significance to Catalan culture of translation, as a means not only of filling gaps in a disrupted history, but also of building and unifying Catalan cultural identity. It highlights the institutional measures put in place to support this effort and assesses the work of the Institut Ramon Llull. Though its initiatives appear to have increased production and visibility of Catalan literature, the chapter argues that the key role has been played by translators acting as gatekeepers. The chapter concludes with an assessment of the relationship between commercial success and major international prizes or choice of genre, noting that Catalan literature has not targeted either.