The World Price of Insider Trading

The existence and the enforcement of insider trading laws in stock markets is a phenomenon of the 1990s. A study of the 103 countries that have stock markets reveals that insider trading laws exist in 87 of them, but enforcement—as evidenced by prosecutions—has taken place in only 38 of them. Before 1990, the respective numbers were 34 and 9. We find that the cost of equity in a country, after controlling for a number of other variables, does not change after the introduction of insider trading laws, but decreases significantly after the first prosecution.     

Short-run Dynamics of Machinery Demand in Canadian Agriculture

Based on the hypothesis of intertemporal cost minimization, this paper develops an error correction model to explain short-run dynamics of machinery demand in aggregate Canadian agricultural production. The estimated model is subjected to a rigorous sequence of hypothesis tests to check for its statistical validity. In addition, various versions of the model that are nested within the most general model are also tested. Structural parameters of the intertemporal cost minimization problem are recovered from the parameter estimates.     

Trade Policy Implications of Sustainable Agriculture

"Les gouvernements peuvent utiliser de nombreux leviers économiques pour assurer un développement respecteux de l'environnement, et exercer leur influence par des impôts, de l'aide financeère, des politiques et des règlements, des accords, de la recherche-développement, des crédits à l'exportation, des subventions au développement régional, des baux d'exploitation des ressources, des politiques de commercialisation, des tarifs douaniers et des déductions pour amortissement".     

Economics, Psychology, and Social Dynamics of Consumer Bidding in Auctions

With increasing numbers of consumers in auction marketplaces, we highlight some recent approaches that bring additional economic, social, and psychological factors to bear on existing economic theory to better understand and explain consumers' behavior in auctions. We also highlight specific research streams that could contribute towards enriching existing economic models of bidding behavior in emerging market mechanisms. This paper is based on the special session at the 6th Triennial Invitational Choice Symposium, University of Colorado Boulder, June 2004 (co-chaired by the first two authors).