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The Economics of Conflicts of Interest in Financial Institutions

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Author Info
Hamid Mehran
Rene M. Stulz

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Abstract

A conflict of interest exists when a party to a transaction could potentially make a gain from taking actions that are detrimental to the other party in the transaction. This paper examines the economics of conflicts of interest in financial institutions and reviews the growing empirical literature (mostly focused on analysts) on the economic implications of these conflicts. Economic analysis shows that, although conflicts of interest are omnipresent when contracting is costly and parties are imperfectly informed, there are important factors that mitigate their impact and, strikingly, it is possible for customers of financial institutions to benefit from the existence of such conflicts. The empirical literature reaches conclusions that differ across types of conflicts of interest, but overall these conclusions are more ambivalent and certainly more benign than the conclusions drawn by journalists and politicians from mostly anecdotal evidence. Though much has been made of conflicts of interest arising from investment banking activities, there is no consensus in the empirical literature supporting the view that conflicts resulting from these activities had a systematic adverse impact on customers of financial institutions.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 12695.

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Date of creation: Nov 2006
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12695

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies
G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Mortgages
G24 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Investment Banking; Venture Capital; Brokerage
G28 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Government Policy and Regulation

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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Antonio Cabrales & Piero Gottardi, 2008. "Markets for information : of inefficient firewalls and efficient monopolies," Economics Working Papers we080201, Universidad Carlos III, Departamento de Economía. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Loh, Roger, 2008. "Investor Attention and the Underreaction to Stock Recommendations," Working Paper Series 2008-2, Ohio State University, Charles A. Dice Center for Research in Financial Economics. [Downloadable!]
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