Professor's research contradicts claims by security transaction tax proponents

In February 2013 Professor Daniel G. Weaver, Rutgers Business School, and a former Rutgers Ph.D. student Anna Pomeranets, now an instructor at Florida Atlantic University College of Business studied changes in market quality variables associated with nine modifications to the New York State Securities Transaction Tax (STT) between 1932 and 1981.

In 2017, Weaver and Pomeranets expanded their research beyond New York state to include three changes to the federal STT between 1932 and 1966. 

Although proponents of STTs argue that the imposition of or increase in the tax will reduce speculative trading and thus volatility, Weaver and Pomeranets found no evidence to support that theory. In contrast, they found evidence suggesting that an increase in the tax is associated with a statistically significant increase in individual stock volatilities.

Pomeranets, A., & Weaver, D. G. (2018). "Securities Transaction Taxes and Market Quality." Journal of Financial & Quantitative Analysis, 53(1), 455–484.