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Journal of Financial Economics Vol. 18 No. 2 1987

Constraints on short-selling and asset price adjustment to private information

Douglas W. Diamond1; Robert E. Verrecchia2

1 University of Chicago · 2 University of Pennsylvania

Abstract

This paper models effects of short-sale constraints on the speed of adjustment (to private information) of security prices. Constraints eliminate some informative trades, but do not bias prices upward. Prohibiting traders from shorting reduces the adjustment speed of prices to private information, especially to bad news. Non-prohibitive costs can have the reverse effect, but this is unlikely. Implications are developed about return distributions on information announcement dates. Periods of inactive trade are shown to impart a downward bias to measured returns. An unexpected increase in the short-interest of a stock is shown to be bad news.

DOI
10.1016/0304-405x(87)90042-0
Volume
18
Issue
2
Pages
277-311
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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