A quick review of the top 10 Papers for Corporate, Securities & Finance Law eJournals on SSRN for the period of September 18, 2013 to November 17, 2013 (here), led me to Utpal Bhattacharya’s paper “Insider Trading Controversies: A Literature Review.” Here is the abstract:
Using the artifice of a hypothetical trial, this paper presents the case for and against insider trading. Both sides in the trial produce as evidence the salient points made in more than 100 years of literature on insider trading. The early days of the trial focus on the issues raised in the law literature like fiduciary responsibility, the misappropriation theory and the fairness and integrity of markets, but the trial soon focuses on issues like Pareto-optimality, efficient contracting, market efficiency, and predictability raised in the financial economics literature. Open issues are brought up. A jury finally hands out its verdict.