Blau Benjamin M, Griffith Todd G, Whitby Ryan J
Department of Economics and Finance, Jon M. Huntsman School of Business, Utah State University, 3565 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT 84322 USA.
J Bus Ethics. 2022;177(1):79-93. doi: 10.1007/s10551-021-04739-x. Epub 2021 Feb 17.
The ethical considerations of insider trading have been widely debated in the academic literature (see e.g., Moore in J Bus Ethics 9(3):171-182, 1990). In 2013, the STOCK Act, which was initially passed to mitigate insider trading by government officials, was quickly and unexpectedly amended to allow certain government employees to withhold their financial information. To identify and quantify the potential costs placed on investors by non-corporate insider traders, we use the unusual circumstances surrounding this amendment. For a sample of stocks most held by members of Congress, we find that, relative to control stocks, liquidity significantly worsens and volatility increases during the post-amendment period. Our results highlight the costs that are incurred by investors in the presence of non-corporate insider trading. These findings call for a stronger development of an ethical framework that justifies the restriction of all types of insider trading.
内幕交易的伦理考量在学术文献中已得到广泛讨论（例如，见摩尔发表于《商业伦理学杂志》9(3):171 - 182, 1990年的文章）。2013年，最初旨在减轻政府官员内幕交易行为的《证券交易法》迅速且出人意料地被修订，允许某些政府雇员隐瞒其财务信息。为了识别并量化非企业内幕交易者给投资者带来的潜在成本，我们利用了围绕此次修订的特殊情况。对于国会议员持股最多的股票样本，我们发现，相对于对照股票，在修订后的时期内流动性显著恶化，波动性增加。我们的结果凸显了存在非企业内幕交易时投资者所承担的成本。这些发现呼吁更有力地发展一个伦理框架，以证明对各类内幕交易进行限制的合理性。
