IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hes/wpaper/0151.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Full steam ahead: Insider knowledge, stock trading and the nationalization of the railways in Prussia around 1879

Author

Listed:
  • Michael Buchner

    (University of Saarland)

  • Tobias A. Jopp

    (University of Regensburg)

Abstract

The costs and benefits of insider trading is a persistent topic in the economic literature and public discourse alike. Nowadays insider trading is principally illegal and morally banned implying that the costs are supposed to weigh heavier than the potential benefits. We study insider trading pre-1914 in order to shed new light on its extent when it was still legal. Our focus is on the first wave of railway nationalisation in Prussia around 1879, the biggest financial transaction in German economic history by this time. Anecdotal evidence has it that insiders – e.g. involved banks or single bankers – made decent use of their exclusive knowledge on how nationalisation would proceed, thereby incurring huge profits. We show that insiders were active at the Berlin Stock Exchange, but contrary to anecdotal evidence could be so only in a very small time-window limiting their options sustainably. Contrary to what Braggion and Moore (2013) found for the London Stock Exchange, the rather modest extent of insider trading was not due to insiders’ ethical reservations, but due to the stock exchange’s institutional design that limited excessive insider trading in the absence of laws against it.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Buchner & Tobias A. Jopp, 2019. "Full steam ahead: Insider knowledge, stock trading and the nationalization of the railways in Prussia around 1879," Working Papers 0151, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    • Handle: RePEc:hes:wpaper:0151
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ehes.org/wp/EHES_151.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Adriana Korczak & Piotr Korczak & Meziane Lasfer, 2010. "To Trade or Not to Trade: The Strategic Trading of Insiders around News Announcements," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(3‐4), pages 369-407, April.
    2. Gishan Dissanaike & Kim-Hwa Lim, 2015. "Detecting and Quantifying Insider Trading and Stock Manipulation in Asian Markets," Asian Economic Papers, MIT Press, vol. 14(3), pages 1-20, Fall.
    3. Ahmet Kara & Karen Craft Denning, 1998. "A model and empirical test of the strong form efficiency of US capital markets: more evidence of insider trading profitability," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(3), pages 211-220.
    4. Hans Degryse & Frank Jong & Jérémie Lefebvre, 2016. "Legal Insider Trading and Stock Market Liquidity," De Economist, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 83-104, March.
    5. Fei Leng & Kevin Zhao, 2014. "Insider trading around open-market share repurchases," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 38(3), pages 461-491, July.
    6. Ajeyo Banerjee & E. Woodrow Eckard, 2001. "Why Regulate Insider Trading? Evidence from the First Great Merger Wave (1897-1903)," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(5), pages 1329-1349, December.
    7. Gehlen Boris, 2011. "Zwischen Wettbewerbsideal und Staatsräson: Die Diskussionen im Deutschen Handelstag über Regulierung und Verstaatlichung der Eisenbahnen (1861–1879)," Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte / Economic History Yearbook, De Gruyter, vol. 52(2), pages 119-149, December.
    8. Maurice Obstfeld & Alan M. Taylor, 2003. "Globalization and Capital Markets," NBER Chapters, in: Globalization in Historical Perspective, pages 121-188, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Fabio Braggion & Lyndon Moore, 2011. "Dividend Policies in an Unregulated Market: The London Stock Exchange, 1895--1905," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(9), pages 2935-2973.
    10. Lesmond, David A & Ogden, Joseph P & Trzcinka, Charles A, 1999. "A New Estimate of Transaction Costs," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 12(5), pages 1113-1141.
    11. Lakonishok, Josef & Lee, Inmoo, 2001. "Are Insider Trades Informative?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 14(1), pages 79-111.
    12. Michael D. Bordo & Alan M. Taylor & Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2003. "Globalization in Historical Perspective," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number bord03-1, March.
    13. Pierre Collin-Dufresne & Vyacheslav Fos, 2015. "Do Prices Reveal the Presence of Informed Trading?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(4), pages 1555-1582, August.
    14. Fabio Braggion & Lyndon Moore, 2013. "How insiders traded before rules," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(4), pages 565-584, June.
    15. Pierre Collin‐Dufresne & Vyacheslav Fos, 2016. "Insider Trading, Stochastic Liquidity, and Equilibrium Prices," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 84, pages 1441-1475, July.
    16. Gareth Campbell & John D. Turner, 2011. "Substitutes for legal protection: corporate governance and dividends in Victorian Britain," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 64(2), pages 571-597, May.
    17. Olmo, Jose & Pilbeam, Keith & Pouliot, William, 2011. "Detecting the presence of insider trading via structural break tests," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 2820-2828, November.
    18. Campbell, Gareth & Quinn, William & Turner, John D. & Ye, Qing, 2015. "What moved share prices in the nineteenth-century London stock market?," QUCEH Working Paper Series 15-06, Queen's University Belfast, Queen's University Centre for Economic History.
    19. Fama, Eugene F, 1970. "Efficient Capital Markets: A Review of Theory and Empirical Work," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 25(2), pages 383-417, May.
    20. Amélie Charles & Olivier Darné, 2009. "Variance‐Ratio Tests Of Random Walk: An Overview," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(3), pages 503-527, July.
    21. Carsten Burhop, 2009. "No need for governance? The impact of corporate governance on valuation, performance and survival of German banks during the 1870s," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(4), pages 569-601.
    22. Peter Koudijs, 2015. "Those Who Know Most: Insider Trading in Eighteenth-Century Amsterdam," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 123(6), pages 1356-1409.
    23. Andrew W. Lo, A. Craig MacKinlay, 1988. "Stock Market Prices do not Follow Random Walks: Evidence from a Simple Specification Test," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 1(1), pages 41-66.
    24. R. Richardson Pettit & P.C. Venkatesh, 1995. "Insider Trading and Long-Run Return Performance," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 24(2), Summer.
    25. Gelman, Sergey & Burhop, Carsten, 2008. "Taxation, regulation and the information efficiency of the Berlin stock exchange, 1892–1913," European Review of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(1), pages 39-66, April.
    26. Gallais-Hamonno, Georges & Hoang, Thi-Hong-Van & Oosterlinck, Kim, 2015. "Informational efficiency of the clandestine and official gold markets in Paris," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 28-30.
    27. Adriana Korczak & Piotr Korczak & Meziane Lasfer, 2010. "To Trade or Not to Trade: The Strategic Trading of Insiders around News Announcements," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(3‐4), pages 369-407, April.
    28. Carsten Burhop & Sergey Gelman, 2011. "Liquidity measures, liquidity drivers and expected returns on an early call auction market," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2011_19, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
    29. Gehlen Boris, 2011. "Zwischen Wettbewerbsideal und Staatsräson: Die Diskussionen im Deutschen Handelstag über Regulierung und Verstaatlichung der Eisenbahnen (1861–1879)," Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte / Economic History Yearbook, De Gruyter, vol. 52(2), pages 119-152, December.
    30. Brown, Stephen J. & Warner, Jerold B., 1985. "Using daily stock returns : The case of event studies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 3-31, March.
    31. Tobias A. Jopp, 2016. "Contemporaries' opinions of the Allied and Central Powers' performance during the First World War: measuring turning points in perception with sovereign debt prices," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 20(2), pages 242-273.
    32. Chakravarty, Sugato & McConnell, John J., 1999. "Does Insider Trading Really Move Stock Prices?," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 34(2), pages 191-209, June.
    33. Long Chen & David A. Lesmond & Jason Wei, 2007. "Corporate Yield Spreads and Bond Liquidity," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(1), pages 119-149, February.
    34. Kruse, Timothy A. & Todd, Steven K., 2013. "Price manipulation at the NYSE and the 1899 battle for Brooklyn Rapid Transit shares," Financial History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(3), pages 279-303, December.
    35. A. Craig MacKinlay, 1997. "Event Studies in Economics and Finance," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(1), pages 13-39, March.
    36. Pierre Collin-Dufresne & Vyacheslav Fos, 2013. "Do Prices Reveal the Presence of Informed Trading?," Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series 13-69, Swiss Finance Institute, revised Sep 2015.
    37. Michael D. Bordo & Alan M. Taylor & Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2003. "Introduction to "Globalization in Historical Perspective"," NBER Chapters, in: Globalization in Historical Perspective, pages 1-10, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hanedar, Avni Önder & Yaldız Hanedar, Elmas & Göktan, Mehmet Gökhan, 2022. "Insider trading on Ottoman sovereign default: The Ottoman General Debt Bond at European and İstanbul financial markets," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PB).
    2. Vinay Patel, 2015. "Price Discovery in US and Australian Stock and Options Markets," PhD Thesis, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney, number 27, July-Dece.
    3. Vinay Patel, 2015. "Price Discovery in US and Australian Stock and Options Markets," PhD Thesis, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney, number 6-2015.
    4. Acheson, Graeme G. & Coyle, Christopher & Turner, John D., 2018. "Prices and informed trading: Evidence from an early stock market," QUCEH Working Paper Series 2018-05, Queen's University Belfast, Queen's University Centre for Economic History.
    5. Fabio Braggion & Lyndon Moore, 2013. "How insiders traded before rules," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(4), pages 565-584, June.
    6. Jopp, Tobias A., 2017. "How does the public perceive alliances? The Central and Allied Powers in World War I," IBF Paper Series 12-17, IBF – Institut für Bank- und Finanzgeschichte / Institute for Banking and Financial History, Frankfurt am Main.
    7. Michael R. King, 2009. "Prebid Run‐Ups Ahead of Canadian Takeovers: How Big Is the Problem?," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 38(4), pages 699-726, December.
    8. Ryu, Doojin & Yang, Heejin & Yu, Jinyoung, 2022. "Insider trading and information asymmetry: Evidence from the Korea Exchange," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(PA).
    9. Corey Garriot & Ryan Riordan, 2020. "Trading on Long-term Information," Staff Working Papers 20-20, Bank of Canada.
    10. Andreas Zingg & Sebastian Lang & Daniela Wyttenbach, 2007. "Insider Trading in the Swiss Stock Market," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 143(III), pages 331-362, September.
    11. Paolo Bizzozero & Raphael Flepp & Egon Franck, 2017. " Insider trading and price efficiency: Evidence from a betting exchange," Working Papers 368, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW).
    12. Alexander Opitz, 2018. "“Comrades, Let's March!”.† The Revolution of 1905 and its impact on financial markets," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 22(1), pages 28-52.
    13. Rzayev, Khaladdin & Ibikunle, Gbenga, 2019. "A state-space modeling of the information content of trading volume," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    14. Ian Tonks, 2010. "Discussion of To Trade or Not To Trade: The Strategic Trading of Insiders around News Announcements," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(3‐4), pages 408-421, April.
    15. Turner, John D., 2014. "Financial history and financial economics," QUCEH Working Paper Series 14-03, Queen's University Belfast, Queen's University Centre for Economic History.
    16. Akey, Pat & Grégoire, Vincent & Martineau, Charles, 2022. "Price revelation from insider trading: Evidence from hacked earnings news," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(3), pages 1162-1184.
    17. Luke M. Bennett & Wei Hu, 2023. "Filtration enlargement‐based time series forecast in view of insider trading," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(1), pages 112-140, February.
    18. Wisniewski, Tomasz P. & Bohl, Martin T., 2005. "The Information Content of Registered Insider Trading Under Lax Law Enforcement," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 169-185, June.
    19. Mazza, Paolo & Ruh, Benjamin, 2022. "The performance of corporate legal insider trading in the Korean market," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    20. Lübbers, Thorsten, 2008. "Shareholder value mining: Wealth effects of takeovers in German coal mining, 1896-1913," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 462-476, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Abnormal Returns; Insider Trading; Nationalisation; Prussia; Railways;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D84 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Expectations; Speculations
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • N23 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • N73 - Economic History - - Economic History: Transport, International and Domestic Trade, Energy, and Other Services - - - Europe: Pre-1913

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hes:wpaper:0151. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Paul Sharp (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ehessea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.