Insider trading and performance of seasoned equity offering firms after controlling for exogenous trading needs

Abstract

Insiders trade not only because they have private information about their companies but also because of other exogenous reasons. Therefore, it is important to control for exogenous trading needs in empirical studies regarding insider trading. Lee (1997) shows that insider trading is not closely related to the long-term performance of primary seasoned equity offering firms. This paper examines whether the results hold after controlling for exogenous needs to trade by using an inequality test with instrumental-variables technique. © 2002 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. All rights reserved.