Insiders with nonpublic information that their firms are acquisition targets can profit by purchasing their firms' stock or by delaying planned sales of their firms' stock. Under current securities laws, insiders who execute the former strategy expose themselves to civil and criminal liability,...

U.S. bank regulations weaken the incentives for market-based monitoring of bank CEOs, and bank assets are difficult for outside investors to value. Therefore, we analyzed factors that might influence institutional holdings of bank shares. Our primary expectation was that alignment of the...