Hill Leaders Outperform Rank-and-File on Stock Trades

A working paper from Shang-Jin Wei and Yifan Zhou for the National Bureau of Economic Research finds that congressional leaders outperform back benchers in their stock trades by up to 47% a year.

Fortune: “Leadership’s stock market edge stems in part from their ability to set the regulatory or legislation agenda, such as deciding if and when a particular bill will be put to a vote. Setting the agenda also gives leaders advanced knowledge of when certain actions will take place.”

“In fact, Wei and Zhou found that leaders demonstrate much better returns on stock trades that are made when their party controls their chamber.”