Insider trading: regulation, risk reallocation, and welfare

Abstract

I argue in this paper that the imposition of insider trading regulations on a securities market generates not on1y a reallocation of wealth from insiders to liquidity traders, but also a reallocation of risk from the former to the latter. I further argue that, although the wealth reallocation has no impact on social welfare, under plausible assumptions, the risk reallocation imposes a cost on society.