IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/use/tkiwps/0605.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

An Ethical Analysis of Regulating Insider Trading

Author

Listed:
  • P. J. Engelen
  • L. Liedekerke

Abstract

Although there seems to be a broad consensus to prohibit insider trading among supervising authorities and market professionals, the debate on insider trading has not settled definitively. We introduce a distinction between insider trading and market manipulation on the one hand and corporate insiders versus misappropriators on the other hand. This gives rise to four types of alleged wrong transactions. Using a utilitarian and a non-utilitarian fairness approach, we demonstrate that it is hard to find good arguments against insider trading in its purest form (type I transactions). Using a property rights perspective in particular, we show that neither a general ban nor a general permitting of insider trading is an efficient outcome. We propose a solution in which companies solve this compensation problem contractually with their corporate agents. In this way,insider trading can be used as a governance instrument which can reinforce the fiduciary relationship.

Suggested Citation

  • P. J. Engelen & L. Liedekerke, 2006. "An Ethical Analysis of Regulating Insider Trading," Working Papers 06-05, Utrecht School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:use:tkiwps:0605
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://dspace.library.uu.nl/bitstream/handle/1874/309522/06_05.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    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.
    2. Cornell, Bradford & Sirri, Erik R, 1992. "The Reaction of Investors and Stock Prices to Insider Trading," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(3), pages 1031-1059, July.
    3. Ross Levine, 1997. "Financial Development and Economic Growth: Views and Agenda," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(2), pages 688-726, June.
    4. Meulbroek, Lisa K, 1992. "An Empirical Analysis of Illegal Insider Trading," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(5), pages 1661-1699, December.
    5. Holden, Craig W & Subrahmanyam, Avanidhar, 1992. "Long-Lived Private Information and Imperfect Competition," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(1), pages 247-270, March.
    6. Guochang Zhang, 2001. "Regulated Managerial Insider Trading as a Mechanism to Facilitate Shareholder Control," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1‐2), pages 35-62, January.
    7. Grossman, Sanford J, 1986. "An Analysis of the Role of "Insider Trading" on Futures Markets," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(2), pages 129-146, April.
    8. Hu, Jie & Noe, Thomas H., 2001. "Insider trading and managerial incentives," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 681-716, April.
    9. Sugato Chakravarty & John J. McConnell, 1997. "An Analysis of Prices, Bid/Ask Spreads, and Bid and Ask Depths Surrounding Ivan Boesky's Illegal Trading in Carnation's Stock," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 26(2), Summer.
    10. Tighe, Carla & Michener, Ron, 1994. "The Political Economy of Insider-Trading Laws," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(2), pages 164-168, May.
    11. Kyle, Albert S, 1985. "Continuous Auctions and Insider Trading," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 53(6), pages 1315-1335, November.
    12. Haddock, David D & Macey, Jonathan R, 1987. "Regulation on Demand: A Private Interest Model, with an Application to Insider Trading Regulation," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 30(2), pages 311-352, October.
    13. Guochang Zhang, 2001. "Regulated Managerial Insider Trading as a Mechanism to Facilitate Shareholder Control," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1-2), pages 35-62.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Robert McGee, 2008. "Applying Ethics to Insider Trading," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 77(2), pages 205-217, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Peter-Jan Engelen & Luc Liedekerke, 2007. "The Ethics of Insider Trading Revisited," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 74(4), pages 497-507, September.
    2. Kabir, Rezaul & Vermaelen, Theo, 1996. "Insider trading restrictions and the stock market: Evidence from the Amsterdam Stock Exchange," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(8), pages 1591-1603, November.
    3. Arturo Bris, 2005. "Do Insider Trading Laws Work?," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 11(3), pages 267-312, June.
    4. Vinay Patel, 2015. "Price Discovery in US and Australian Stock and Options Markets," PhD Thesis, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney, number 27, July-Dece.
    5. Qin Lei & Xuewu Wang, 2014. "Time†Varying Liquidity Trading, Private Information and Insider Trading," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 20(2), pages 321-351, March.
    6. Chakravarty, Sugato, 2001. "Stealth-trading: Which traders' trades move stock prices?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 289-307, August.
    7. Vinay Patel, 2015. "Price Discovery in US and Australian Stock and Options Markets," PhD Thesis, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney, number 6-2015, January-A.
    8. Palan, Stefan & Stöckl, Thomas, 2017. "When chasing the offender hurts the victim: The case of insider legislation," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 104-129.
    9. Del Brio, Esther B. & Miguel, Alberto & Perote, Javier, 2002. "An investigation of insider trading profits in the Spanish stock market," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 73-94.
    10. A. Can Inci & Biao Lu & H. Nejat Seyhun, 2010. "Intraday Behavior of Stock Prices and Trades around Insider Trading," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 39(1), pages 323-363, March.
    11. André Betzer & Erik Theissen, 2010. "Sooner or Later: An Analysis of the Delays in Insider Trading Reporting," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(1‐2), pages 130-147, January.
    12. BOCCARD, Nicolas & CALCAGNO, Riccardo, 1999. "Asymmetries of information in centralized order-driven markets," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 1999035, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    13. Alex Frino & Stephen Satchell & Brad Wong & Hui Zheng, 2013. "How much does an Illegal Insider Trade?," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 13(2), pages 241-263, June.
    14. Jeff Madura & Marek Marciniak, 2014. "Characteristics of takeover targets that trigger insider trading investigations," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1), pages 1-18, January.
    15. Michael R. King, 2009. "Prebid Run‐Ups Ahead of Canadian Takeovers: How Big Is the Problem?," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 38(4), pages 699-726, December.
    16. Ryu, Doojin & Yang, Heejin & Yu, Jinyoung, 2022. "Insider trading and information asymmetry: Evidence from the Korea Exchange," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(PA).
    17. Tong, Wilson H.S. & Zhang, Shaojun & Zhu, Yanjian, 2013. "Trading on inside information: Evidence from the share-structure reform in China," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 1422-1436.
    18. Sun, Yuxin & Ibikunle, Gbenga, 2017. "Informed trading and the price impact of block trades: A high frequency trading analysis," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 114-129.
    19. Lee, Yi-Tsung & Lin, Ji-Chai & Liu, Yu-Jane, 1999. "Trading patterns of big versus small players in an emerging market: An empirical analysis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 23(5), pages 701-725, May.
    20. Baruch, Shmuel & Panayides, Marios & Venkataraman, Kumar, 2017. "Informed trading and price discovery before corporate events," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(3), pages 561-588.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    insider trading; market manipulation; fairness; property rights;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:use:tkiwps:0605. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Marina Muilwijk (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eiruunl.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.