Are expansions cost effective for stock exchanges?: A global perspective

This paper investigates the existence and extent of economies of scale and scope among the stock exchanges. Evidence from 38 exchanges in 32 countries and 4 continents around the world for the years 1989-1998 portrays the existence of significant economies of scale and scope. The degree of such scale and scope however differs across size and regions. The largest exchanges show an increasing trend of cost effectiveness. The exchanges in North America and Europe report substantially higher economics of scale relative to the exchanges in the Asia-Pacific regions. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.