The Internet and financial market structure

Financial markets are markets for information. As such, they are directly i nfluenced by advances in information dissemination, storage, and processing associated with the commercial development of the Internet. On the other h and, given the long-standing centrality of information in financial markets , the consequences of the Internet for financial markets can be understood as evolutionary rather than revolutionary. This article provides a framewor k for understanding how the historical interplay between information techno logy and human capital has influenced financial market structure. In doing so, it sheds light on the recent reorganization of financial markets. The d aring reader might infer implications for reorganization of product markets where the impact of the Internet is more abrupt.