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Inside Information and the Own Company Stock Puzzle

Author

Listed:
  • Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh
  • Laura Veldkamp

Abstract

U.S. investors allocate 30-40% of their financial asset portfolio in the stock of the company they work for. Such a portfolio flies in the face of standard portfolio theory, which prescribes that an investor should hold less of a financial asset that is positively correlated with her undiversified labor income.Nevertheless, we propose a rational explanation that prescribes a long position in own company stock. Precisely because the own company stock is positively correlated with the investor's labor income, any information the investor learns about her earnings is a partial information advantage in her own company stock. When confronted with a choice of what information to acquire, employees may choose to learn about their own firm. Learning lowers the employee's risk of holding own-firm equity, which raises its risk-adjusted returns and makes a long position optimal.(JEL: F30, G11, D82) (c) 2006 by the European Economic Association.

Suggested Citation

  • Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh & Laura Veldkamp, 2006. "Inside Information and the Own Company Stock Puzzle," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 4(2-3), pages 623-633, 04-05.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpr:jeurec:v:4:y:2006:i:2-3:p:623-633
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Ilona Babenko & Rik Sen, 2016. "Do Nonexecutive Employees Have Valuable Information? Evidence from Employee Stock Purchase Plans," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(7), pages 1878-1898, July.
    2. Filippo De Marco & Marco Macchiavelli & Rosen Valchev, 2018. "Beyond Home Bias: Portfolio Holdings and Information Heterogeneity," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 942, Boston College Department of Economics.
    3. Rosen Valchev, 2017. "Dynamic Information Acquisition and Portfolio Bias," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 941, Boston College Department of Economics.
    4. Rosen Valchev, 2017. "Dynamic Information Acquisition and Home Bias in Portfolios," 2017 Meeting Papers 1486, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    5. Chen, XiaoHua & Lai, Yun-Ju, 2015. "On the concentration of mutual fund portfolio holdings: Evidence from Taiwan," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 268-286.
    6. Pavan, Alessandro & Vives, Xavier, 2015. "Information, Coordination, and Market Frictions: An Introduction," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 158(PB), pages 407-426.
    7. Phelim Boyle & Lorenzo Garlappi & Raman Uppal & Tan Wang, 2012. "Keynes Meets Markowitz: The Trade-Off Between Familiarity and Diversification," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(2), pages 253-272, February.
    8. Herskovic, Bernard & Kelly, Bryan & Lustig, Hanno & Van Nieuwerburgh, Stijn, 2016. "The common factor in idiosyncratic volatility: Quantitative asset pricing implications," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(2), pages 249-283.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F30 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - General
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design

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