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Insider trading, costly monitoring, and managerial incentives

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  • Jie Hu
  • Thomas H. Noe

Abstract

In this paper we show, in an incomplete contracts framework that combines asymmetric information and moral hazard, that by permitting insiders to trade on personal account the equilibrium level of output can be increased and shareholder welfare can be improved. There are two reasons for this. First, insider trading impounds information regarding the costs and benefits of effort and perk consumption into asset prices, which allows shareholders to choose more efficient portfolio allocations. Second, allowing insider trading can induce managers to increase their stake in the firm beyond that obtained through bargaining with shareholders. This effect leads to a reduction in managerial perk consumption and/or increased managerial effort. Insider trading can also be costly for shareholders' intermediate range of monitoring costs and project difficulty because, in such cases, the efforts of managers are quite sensitive to the exact level of fractional shareownership, which managers can endogenously change if they are able to trade on personal account. Interestingly, when monitoring and effort costs are low, managers may prefer restrictions on their ability to trade as such restrictions will force shareholders to offer them a larger fraction of output.

Suggested Citation

  • Jie Hu & Thomas H. Noe, 1997. "Insider trading, costly monitoring, and managerial incentives," FRB Atlanta Working Paper 97-2, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
  • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedawp:97-2
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Noe, Thomas H, 1997. "Insider Trading and the Problem of Corporate Agency," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 13(2), pages 287-318, October.
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    6. Michael Manove, 1989. "The Harm from Insider Trading and Informed Speculation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 104(4), pages 823-845.
    7. Bebchuk, Lucian Arye & Fershtman, Chaim, 1994. "Insider Trading and the Managerial Choice among Risky Projects," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 29(1), pages 1-14, March.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Rebecca Pham & Marcel Ausloos, 2022. "Insider trading in the run‐up to merger announcements. Before and after the UK's Financial Services Act 2012," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(3), pages 3373-3385, July.

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