The announcement about a stock exchange market to be established in Dallas is a promising development that will likely produce significant benefits for the Lone Star State.
As an electronic exchange similar to the Nasdaq Stock Market, the Texas Stock Exchange, TXSE, will start trading in 2026. It aspires to provide a more laissez-faire environment to its listed companies and investors than the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, which have long been criticized as overregulating, under-delivering and overcharging.
TXSE will accelerate Texas’ rapid rise as a $2.4 trillion economy, already the eighth-largest in the world and the fourth-fastest growing in the U.S. An astonishing 7,200 firms relocated to Texas between 2010 and 2019, partly due to the state’s regulation-wary political culture, lack of corporate and personal income taxes, and high quality of living.
Texas is tied as the second-ranked state for most Fortune 500 companies (52) and private equity-sponsored businesses (1,661). Having a stock exchange market that is less stringent will allow more companies to go public and improve their capitalization and growth prospects. Their investments also will boost job creation.
This economic stimulation will positively spill over to San Antonio as area businesses satisfy part of the new consumption demand in the state. It will also help the Alamo City attract increasing amounts of long-term investment from other parts of the U.S. and abroad due to three features of the city’s economy:
- San Antonio’s economy is evenly diversified. Stability-promoting sectors such as the military, health care and tourism complement similarly sized growth-promoting sectors such as manufacturing, aerospace, bioscience, cybersecurity and green energies.
- San Antonio is one of the fastest-growing cities in the United States. Nearly 19,000 people join San Antonio’s consumer market every year, making it even more attractive to businesses.
- San Antonio’s consumers spend their money. San Antonio has the highest average debt-to-income ratio in Texas, which has the sixth-highest spending rate in the union.
- For these benefits to be maximized, however, TXSE has to remain free of any local identity. If it ends up being perceived as a regional project that caters mostly to the businesses and investors in a particular area, it will not escape that association.
While such a public image would attract some businesses that identify with that regional culture, it would turn off many others that would be concerned about the possibility of alienating their consumers, investors, suppliers and local officials.
TXSE and its listed companies will maximize their profits if TXSE appeals to all cultures and worldviews rather than only a distinct one.
Bulent Temel is an assistant professor of practice in the Department of Economics at The University of Texas at San Antonio and an award-winning former financier.
A version of this op-ed appeared in the San Antonio Express-News.
