International equity portfolio investment and enforcement of insider trading laws: a cross-country analysis

In this study, we examine the effects of stringent insider trading laws’ enforcement, institutions and stock market development on international equity portfolio allocation using data from 44 countries over the period 2001-2015. Our results suggest that stringent insider trading laws and their enforcement exert a positive and significant impact on international portfolio investment allocation. Further analysis indicates that the interaction between a country’s institutional quality, stock market development and enforcement of insider trading laws have a positive and significant effect on international equity portfolio allocation. The findings of this study have implications for the design of portfolio investment trading strategies and contribute to the literature on foreign equity investment decisions

The cycle of development in Africa: A story about the power of economic ideas

During the last 60 years development in Sub-Sahara Africa has had three main phases - P1, P2 and P3 - divided by kinks in 1972 and in 1994. P1 and P3 had fairly satisfactory growth, but P2 had negative growth. This cyclical growth path has to be explained by variables with a similar path. A set of socio-economic variables representing 11 hypotheses is considered. Some of these hypotheses have been proposed to explain the low growth of Africa, while most are meant to explain the growth tragedy of P2. Most of the variables have paths with no relation to the cycle, but the path corresponds to the shifts in the dominating development strategy. At the end of P1 the main policy-package in Africa became the one of African socialism. It led to large scale rent seeking, inefficiency and economic regression. At the end of P2 policies were adjustment towards a more market based system and growth resumed

Growing Up in Law and Society: The Pulls of Policy and Methods

This article begins by tracing the aspirations and training that led to Lempert\u27s commitment to the field of law and social science and includes comments on prominent figures in the field, the emergence of empirical legal studies, and other matters. It may interest scholars who seek to understand the history of the field\u27s revival, and those who were among the first generation of Law and Society Association members may see some of their own experience in Lempert\u27s account. The article then discusses policy uses of law and social science research and cautions against the possibility that a study\u27s policy appeal may exceed the weight that can fairly be put on it. Five studies are used as examples: Wilson and Kelling\u27s essay on “broken windows,” Sherman and Berk\u27s work on arrest for spouse abuse, Ehrlich\u27s article on the deterrent effects of the death penalty, Lott and Mustard\u27s work on right-to-carry laws, and Sander\u27s mismatch critique of affirmative action. The article concludes by emphasizing the importance to policy of understanding mechanism and the need for sophistication in the soft methods of study design, along with a good understanding of formal statistics