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Full-Text Articles in Law

Strengthening The Passivity Default, Ian Ayres, Edward Fox Jun 2019

Strengthening The Passivity Default, Ian Ayres, Edward Fox

Articles

In The Prudence of Passivity, Bryon Harmon and Laura Fisher (hereafter HF) argue that "passive management become the default approach for the investment of trust funds, to be abandoned only when circumstances specifically dictate the use of active management."' In this comment we argue that their thesis could be strengthened (i) by more clearly distinguishing between default law and default investment practices, (ii) by more clearly articulating their favored altering rules.


Alpha Duties: The Search For Excess Returns And Appropriate Fiduciary Duties, Ian Ayres, Edward Fox Mar 2019

Alpha Duties: The Search For Excess Returns And Appropriate Fiduciary Duties, Ian Ayres, Edward Fox

Articles

Modern finance theory and investment practice have shifted toward “passive investing.” The current consensus is that most savers should invest in mutual funds or ETFs that are (i) well-diversified, (ii) low-cost, and (iii) expose their portfolios to age-appropriate stock market risk. The law governing trustees, investment advisers, broker–dealers, 401(k) plan managers, and other investment fiduciaries has evolved to push them gently toward this consensus. But these laws still provide broad scope for fiduciaries to recommend that clients invest instead in specific assets that they believe will produce “alpha” by outperforming the market. Seeking alpha comes at a cost, however, in …


Do Investors In Controlled Firms Value Insider Trading Laws? International Evidence, Laura Nyantung Beny Jan 2008

Do Investors In Controlled Firms Value Insider Trading Laws? International Evidence, Laura Nyantung Beny

Articles

This article characterizes insider trading as an agency problem in firms that have a controlling shareholder. Using a standard agency model of corporate value diversion through insider trading by the controlling shareholder, I derive testable hypotheses about the relationship between corporate value and insider trading laws among such firms. The article tests these hypotheses using firm-level cross-sectional data from twenty-seven developed countries. The results show that stringent insider trading laws and enforcement are associated with greater corporate valuation among the sample firms in common law countries, a result that is consistent with the claim that insider trading laws mitigate agency …


A Commerce Clause Challenge To New York's Tax Deduction For Investment In Its Own Tuition Savings Program, Amy Remus Scott Dec 1999

A Commerce Clause Challenge To New York's Tax Deduction For Investment In Its Own Tuition Savings Program, Amy Remus Scott

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The Internal Revenue Code provides guidelines for states to create and maintain college tuition savings programs which offer federal tax benefits to investors. Several states have enacted tuition savings plans in accordance with these guidelines. In addition to the federal tax benefits allowed, New York offers a state tax deduction to New York residents who invest in its plan, the New York College Choice Tuition Savings Program. New York does not offer the deduction, however, to residents who invest in comparable programs offered by other states. The tax deduction thus creates an incentive for residents to invest in the in-state …


The Case For Employee Ownership In Overseas Operations Of U.S. Multinational Enterprises In Central America, William G. Hopping Jan 1987

The Case For Employee Ownership In Overseas Operations Of U.S. Multinational Enterprises In Central America, William G. Hopping

Michigan Journal of International Law

Part II of this note explains the relevance of using U.S. direct investment in Central America as a starting point for encouraging employee ownership. Part III describes the essential legal framework of the ESOP in the U.S., providing a framework from which to adapt the ESOP to other countries. Part IV argues that all parties participating in this form of expanded ownership will realize significant short and long-term benefits, but points out some problems of transferring ESOPs, a U.S. legal innovation, to different cultural and business environments. Part V presents some of the legal and economic issues of adapting ESOPs, …


An Analysis Of Recent Proposals For Reform Of Federal Securities Legislation, William H. Painter Aug 1973

An Analysis Of Recent Proposals For Reform Of Federal Securities Legislation, William H. Painter

Michigan Law Review

Today the securities industry is in the midst of rapid change. Indeed it has been for at least the past decade, but in recent years the pace of change has increased, and its emphasis has shifted. Legislative and administrative reforms that could not have been anticipated a decade ago are likely in the near future, and it is still impossible to predict accurately the shape of the markets of tomorrow or the rules by which they will be governed. It is the purpose of this Article to focus on these recent developments, to summarize and evaluate various proposals for reform, …


Proposed Regulation Of Limited Partnership Investment Programs, Ivan J. Schell Jan 1973

Proposed Regulation Of Limited Partnership Investment Programs, Ivan J. Schell

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Limited partners have long been admonished to scrutinize potential investments; this advice is often ignored, however, by investors eager to reap quick profits. Furthermore, the proliferation of limited partnership interests in a single enterprise diffuses the focus of investor vigilance and increases the potential for undetected abuses. Thus a need for regulation, either governmental or private, has developed. Currently the Uniform Limited Partnership Act and blue sky laws provide some control of limited partnership abuses at the state level. On the interstate level, the Midwest Securities Commissioners Association, the National Association of Securities Dealers, and the Securities and Exchange Commission …


The Regulation Of Investment Advice: Subscription Advisers And Fiduciary Duties, Charles G. Nickson May 1965

The Regulation Of Investment Advice: Subscription Advisers And Fiduciary Duties, Charles G. Nickson

Michigan Law Review

In the landmark decision of SEC v. Capital Gains Research Bureau, Inc., the United States Supreme Court upheld the Commission's interpretation of an adviser's quasi-fiduciary status under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 by holding fraudulent the failure of a subscription adviser to disclose to his clients his practice of acquiring securities before recommending their purchase, with the intent to resell immediately after the recommendation. It is the purpose of this comment to examine the major problems attending the dissemination of investment advice by subscription advisers, to evaluate those problems in the light of the higher standards of disclosure …


A Warning Signal For Municipal Bondholders: Some Implications Of Erie Railroad V. Tompkins, Irvin Long Feb 1939

A Warning Signal For Municipal Bondholders: Some Implications Of Erie Railroad V. Tompkins, Irvin Long

Michigan Law Review

That branch of municipal bond litigation in which the character and validity of the obligations is involved has usually been conducted in the federal courts. Bondholders pressing for payment of their defaulted bonds usually are nonresidents of the state where the city, county or other defaulting municipality is located. Varying and contradictory state court decisions taught them that no settled rule of decision in the state courts could be expected. The arguments of their counsel, which many of the earlier volumes of the Supreme Court reports preserve, show that they distrusted a judiciary elected for short terms, as was the …