Search and Inventory in Over‐the‐Counter Markets
Published online on April 27, 2026
Abstract
["International Economic Review, Volume 67, Issue 2, Page 697-728, May 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nWe investigate the sources of the dealer centrality premium in the over‐the‐counter market for corporate bonds. We model dealer heterogeneity by allowing the dealer's status in the network to determine search effort and inventory costs when choosing to conduct riskless principal or principal trades. Structural estimates match the observed centrality premium across transaction types and trade count deciles. Counterfactual analyses reveal that measures that limit core dealer bargaining power vis‐a‐vis clients reduce roundtrip spreads. Removing core dealers' advantage in search relative to peripheral dealers has little effect on transaction costs."]