This is the second installment of a multi-part guest blog presenting some of the results of the first comprehensive, large-scale, national survey of public attitudes regarding insider trading. My co-authors (Jeremy Kidd and George Mocsary) and I present the survey’s complete results in our forthcoming article, Public Perceptions of Insider Trading. This installment focuses on some of our results pertaining to the effect of insider trading on the public’s confidence in the integrity of our capital markets.

It turns out that most Americans believe that insider trading is pervasive. The following table breaks down respondents’ answers to the question, “How common do you think insider trading is?”

 

Very Common

Common

Rare

Very Rare

Overall

25.4%

55.0%

15.0%

4.6%

Gender

Female

24.0%

57.0%

14.4%

4.5%

Male

26.8%

52.7%

15.9%

4.6%

Race

Asian

25.8%

51.5%

18.2%

4.5%

Black

41.6%

38.8%

15.2%

4.5%

Latinx

25.3%

55.4%

14.5%

4.8%

Native Am.

25.0%

58.3%

0.0%

16.7%

White

22.3%

58.3%

15.1%

4.3%

Other

22.7%

54.6%

13.6%

9.1%

Trading Status

Invest

30.5%

52.1%

14.4%

3.0%

Abstain

21.5%

56.9%

15.9%

5.7%

           

Approximately 80% of Americans believe insider trading is common or very common. If insider trading’s perceived pervasiveness