Proprietary data allow us to distinguish between institutional investors' orders directed to soft-dollar brokers and those directed to other types of brokers. We find that soft-dollar brokers execute smaller orders in larger market values stocks. Al- lowing for differences in order characteristics, we estimate the incremental im- plicit cost of soft-dollar execution at 29(24) basis points for buyer-(seller-) initiated orders. For large orders, incremental implicit costs are 41 (30) basis points for buys (sells). However, we document substantial variability in these estimates, and re- search services provided by soft-dollar brokers may at least partially offset these costs.
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