We explore the role of corporate insiders vs. firms as traders of last resort. We develop a simple model of insider trading in which insiders provide price support, as well as liquidity, in security markets. Consistent with the model predictions we find that in the US markets insiders' trading...

We provide a theory of mandatory accounting conservatism as a means to avoid speculative bubbles and overvaluation. In a simple exchange economy where agents trade due to differences in opinion, we show that conservatism leads to a lower expected stock price than a full disclosure regime. Thus...

The extreme levels of stock price volatility found during the Great Depression have often been attributed to political uncertainty. This paper performs an explicit test of the Merton/Schwert hypothesis that doubts about the survival of the capitalist system were partly responsible. It does so by...

We analyze the effect of taxes and government spending on quarterly market returns of stocks, government bonds, and corporate bonds. In US data from 1960 to 2000, a one standard deviation increase in the share of tax receipts in GDP has a statistically and economically significant effect on...

The paper analyses the impact of the suspension of opening and closing call auctions by the National Stock Exchange of India in 1999. We compare volatility, efficiency and liquidity (VEL) of securities before and after suspension, and estimate the value of the auctions using an event study....

One of the primary results of studying asymmetric information as part of information economics over the last 30 years has been a theory of markets for lemons - that is, markets for goods that are likely to be of poor quality. Unfortunately, it has proven difficult to directly test the lemons...

The Fed Model assumes that, the equity earnings yield follows the bond yield in the long run. This effect can be used to predict changes in the equity prices when the yields are far apart. Our tests based on a cointegration analysis of the United States, United Kingdom and German data indicate...

This paper models firms' choices between alternative means of presenting information, and the effects of different presentations on market prices when investors have limited attention and processing power. In a market equilibrium with partially attentive investors, we examine the effects of...

It is documented that technical analysis is a highly pervasive activity among stock traders and security analysts in China. This paper uses eight years' data on daily stock prices and trading volume of thirty-nine companies listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange to examine the usefulness of...

This study examines the profitability of insider trading on Euronext Amsterdam. To improve market transparency, disclosure of insider trading has been required in the Netherlands since April 1999. Both a short-term event study and a 6-month buy-and-hold strategy revealed that insiders as well as...