Empirical evidence showing liquidity impact of share repurchases
is still inconclusive. Some studies document that share repurchases help
increase liquidity. For example, Franz et al. (1995) find a significant
decline in bid-ask spreads following 157 open stock repurchase
announcements made by firms listed on the NASDAQ market. They
contend that liquidity improvement is attributed mainly to the decrease
in the adverse selection cost component of bid-ask spreads. This is
because open market share repurchases signal managers’ private
information to outsiders, thereby reducing information asymmetry.