The Martin Report and Its Aftermath
Volume: Volume 4, No. 1
Issue: Spring 1973
Pages: pp. 250-269
Authors: Morris Mendelson
Title: The Martin Report and Its Aftermath
Abstract: The confluence of the institutionalization of the equity market and of the development of computer technology is having a drastic organizational impact on the American stock market. The Institutional Investor Study called for a competitive central market system. The Martin Report accelerated the development of such a system, but it is unlikely that the system that will evolve will bear much resemblance to the one recommended in that Report. The first commission rate system seems to have little chance of surviving. Full-fledged institutional membership is almost inevitable. The central market system is on the horizon. That might not have been true if the Martin Report had not been written.. The Report was to be the solution to the market's ills. Unfortunately, the Report diagnosed healthy competition as a cancerous growth. Fortunately, the error of the diagnosis was recognized, and there is now hope that for the first time in history, the hallmark of American capitalism, the American stock market, may be truly competitive.
JEL Classification
Capital Markets Empirical Studies, Including Regulation (3132)