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Journal of Finance Vol. 68 No. 1 2013

Short‐Selling Bans Around the World: Evidence from the 2007–09 Crisis

Alessandro Beber1; Marco Pagano2,3

1 Centre for Economic Policy Research · 2 Center for Economic and Policy Research · 3 University of Naples Federico II

open access

Abstract

Most regulators around the world reacted to the 2007–09 crisis by imposing bans on short selling. These were imposed and lifted at different dates in different countries, often targeted different sets of stocks, and featured varying degrees of stringency. We exploit this variation in short‐sales regimes to identify their effects on liquidity, price discovery, and stock prices. Using panel and matching techniques, we find that bans (i) were detrimental for liquidity, especially for stocks with small capitalization and no listed options; (ii) slowed price discovery, especially in bear markets, and (iii) failed to support prices, except possibly for U.S. financial stocks.

DOI
10.1111/j.1540-6261.2012.01802.x
Volume
68
Issue
1
Pages
343-381
Language
en
Sources
openalex bibtex:phds-export.bib crossref

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