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This paper investigates the effect of the short sale ban by the Korean government on the relationship between the disagreement among investors and the future stock returns. Short selling in Korean stock market was banned twice in 2008 and 2011. The short sale ban provides a natural experiment environment to study the effect of the short sale constraints on the relationship between the disagreement among investors and the future stock returns. Furthermore, it is an exogenous shock in the point of individual stocks. Thus, this paper focus on short sale ban periods to analyzes the stock return predictability of the disagreement among investors’ opinions about analysts’ earnings forecasts. Main results of this paper are as follows: First, the portfolio within the top 30% of the disagreement among investors experiences the significantly higher returns than that within the bottom 30% of the disagreement only during short sale ban periods. However, the two portfolio returns are not significantly different during the other periods excluding the short sale ban periods. These results are robust even after controlling for firm sizes, boot to market ratios, and the momentum effects. Second, a portfolio with higher the disagreement among investors presents significantly positive abnormal returns estimated by Fama-French’s three factor model during short sale ban periods. On the other hand, the abnormal returns of the portfolio with lower the disagreement among investors are not significantly different from zero. Furthermore, those returns of the portfolio with lower disagreement are not affected by the short sale ban. Finally, our findings show that individual stock returns are positively related to disagreement after controlling for the characteristics of individual stocks. Consequentially, the stocks with higher disagreement are overvalued during the short sale ban periods according to our robust empirical analyses with various control variables. According to our findings, we conclude that the short sale constraints are important factors to determine the predictability of disagreement on future stock returns. These are consistent with the results of short sale ban on the U.S. stock market from Autore, Billingsley, and Kovacs (2011).

The authors investigate the 2008-2009 short-sales ban in Korea, one of the most comprehensive and restrictive short-selling bans worldwide. The purpose of this paper is to examine: whether the ban stopped a destabilizing effect, if there was any, of short-selling activities; whether the ban improved or deteriorated the informational efficiency or the price discovery process of the stock market; and whether the ban had any impact on market liquidity.

Multiple regression; vector autoregression analysis; and generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity analysis.

The authors find no evidence that short-sales have a market-destabilizing effect and thus, restricting short-selling has a market-stabilizing effect. On the contrary, the short-selling ban is associated with an increase in return volatility and a deterioration of the price discovery process, particularly for the stocks without derivatives traded on them. The authors also find evidence of a liquidity decrease for short-sale intensive stocks. However, the evidence is inconclusive as to whether the market efficiency and liquidity changes are solely the result of the short-sales ban or the compound effects of both the ban and the concurrent progress of the financial crisis.

The literature does not provide a conclusive view on the effects of short-sales or restrictions thereof on the stock market. Also, the existing research on recent worldwide shorting bans often lack empirical scope (e.g. 32 stocks for UK; three weeks for USA). In contrast, the short-sales ban in the Korean stock market, one of the most comprehensive and restrictive short-selling bans worldwide, lasted for eight months for all the listed stocks and is still in effect for financial stocks. The authors find no evidence that short-sales have a market-destabilizing effect and thus, restricting short-selling has a market-stabilizing effect.

The paper aims to investigate the effectiveness of the ban on short trading of stocks on the London Stock Exchange, introduced in September 2008 in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of Lehman Brothers. In particular, the paper investigates how far the ban succeeded in achieving the objectives set out by the regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

The approach involves comparing the returns on a portfolio of stocks covered by the short-sales ban with a portfolio of financial stocks exempt from the ban as a control group.

The paper presents evidence to show the effects to the ban to have been mostly confined to a large first-day return. Beyond that, there is some evidence that volatility was diverted from stocks covered by the ban to those for which short-sales were still permitted. Investors seem to have been wary of buying banned stocks when good news arrived, presumably out of fear that they may be overpriced.

All event studies are subject to the curse of the counterfactual: what would have happened if the event had not occurred? The problem is especially acute here, however, because the background was the most turbulent in modern economic and financial history.

The paper shows the limited value of short-sales bans over anything beyond the very short-term.

This paper helps to inform regulatory decision-making in financial crises.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the 2008 SEC short selling ban on financial firms and whether this ban negatively impacted private information provision in these short‐restricted equities.

This paper employs the French and Roll Variance Ratio (VR) as a proxy for private information provision in both an unconditional and conditional analysis. The unconditional analysis examines the VR across trading characteristics, firm characteristics, and time regimes. The conditional analysis models the VR in an event study framework where exogenous determinants of private information provision are held constant.

Empirical results indicate that private information provision increased due to the 2007 US financial crisis while information provision decreased due to the 2008 short selling ban. This study concludes that the 2007 financial crisis enticed informed short sellers into the market which then increased information provision. Further, the 2008 short selling ban restricted these informed short sellers from the market thus leading to a decrease in information provision in the short‐restricted firms. Interestingly, the information restricting effects of the 2008 ban were not severe enough to erode the gains in information provision originally induced by the financial crisis.

This paper specifically contributes by demonstrating that the 2008 SEC short selling ban negatively impacted private information provision. This paper contributes generally by showing that short sale bans' information effects are not completely restrictive. Rather, short sale bans' information effects are a function of firm characteristics and contemporaneous market conditions.

The purpose of this paper is to take advantage of a natural experiment in Taiwan to test the effect of short‐sales constraints on price dynamics.

Since September 1998, short‐selling is banned at a price below the close price of the previous trading day. The new rule creates unique daily dynamics of short‐sales constraints. The paper employs a difference‐in‐difference method to evaluate whether the short‐sales constraint rule plays an important role in the price dynamics.

The results show that stock prices react to information in a way similar to if short‐selling was not banned. This is in line with the implication of a rational expectation framework like Diamond and Verrecchia.

The paper has implications on the short selling bans in the 2008/2009 credit crisis and the European debt crisis because the bans are public information as those in this setting. The rational agents in the market could incorporate the bans into price beliefs which could lead to the ineffectiveness of the policy. The short‐sales constraints may be widely imposed in the crisis but they are not the effective tools to alleviate downward price pressures.

The results suggest that the effort of the government to boost stock price by imposing short sales constraints will not be effective if rational investors take the constraints into account while forming their beliefs.

Unlike existing short‐sales constraint proxies like short interest or lending fees, the dynamic constraints do not suffer from endogeneity. Moreover, the constraints are public information and thus ideal for testing the rational expectation models, in which investors have to be aware of the level of the constraints.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of short-sale restrictions (SSR) with particular emphasis on their impact on the liquidity and informed trading in the stock and option markets.

Using a panel regression with controls for volatility, VIX and matched stocks, this study examines the effect of the short-sale ban (SSB) on stock and option liquidity, expressed in terms of spread and volume. In addition, the PIN and option information share (OIS) measures have been used to analyze its impact on informed trading in those related markets.

The results suggest that the SSB leads to a significant reduction in the liquidity of the affected stocks and their options. However, no significant change in the trader composition can be detected. This result is consistent to the short-prohibition effect predicted by Diamond and Verrecchia (1987).

Due to the sizeable data required to estimate the PIN and OIS measures, only a select sample of optionable stocks has been examined.

This study offers both academics and policy makers some useful insights into the effect of SSR on trading activities in both stock and option markets. From a policy perspective, it clearly demonstrates that regulatory changes targeting a specific market also affect other related markets via the arbitrage link between them.

This study delves into the nuanced implications of short-sale constraints on stock prices within the context of stock market efficiency. While existing research has explored this relationship, inconsistencies persist in their findings. The purpose of this study is to conduct a comprehensive review of literature to elucidate the reasons behind these disparities.

A systematic review of existing theoretical and empirical studies was conducted following the PRISMA method. The analysis centered on discerning the factors contributing to the divergence in projected stock prices due to these constraints. Key areas explored included assumptions related to expectations homogeneity, revisions, information uncertainty, trading motivations and fluctuations in supply and demand of risky assets.

The review uncovered multifaceted reasons for the disparities in findings regarding the influence of short-sale constraints on stock prices. Variations in assumptions related to market expectations, coupled with fluctuations in perceived information uncertainty and trading motivations, were identified as pivotal factors contributing to differing projections. Empirical evidence disparities stemmed from the use of proxies for short-sale constraints, varied sample periods, market structure nuances, regulatory changes and the presence of option trading.

This study emphasizes the significance of not oversimplifying the impact of short-sale constraints on stock prices. It highlights the need to understand these effects within the broader context of market structure and methodological considerations. By delineating the intricate interplay of factors affecting stock prices under short-sale constraints, this review provides a nuanced perspective, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding in the field.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine whether corporate insiders extract information from activity of outsiders, specifically the short sellers.

Using portfolio approach and Fama-MacBeth regressions, this study examines the relation between short interest and subsequent insider trading activities.

The following results are reported. First, there is a strong inverse relation between short selling and subsequent insider trading, which is partially due to common private information and same target firm characteristics. Second, insiders extract information from shorts. This information extraction effect is more pronounced for firms whose insiders have stronger incentives to extract shorts information (insider purchases, higher short sale constraints, and better information environments). Third, during the September 2008 shorting ban, the information extraction affect disappeared among the large banned firms, whose shorting activities were distorted.

The findings contradict the of-cited accusations corporate executives hold against short sellers. Instead, corporate insiders appear to trade in the same direction as suggested by shorting activities.

Among the vocal critics of short sellers are corporate insiders, who allege that short sellers beat down their stock prices. Many corporations even engage in stock repurchases to show confidence that the stock will perform well going forward despite the short sellers’ actions. This paper’s analysis on their personal portfolios suggests the other way around.

By focusing on how corporate insider trading is related to shorts information, this paper sheds new light on whether corporate decisions convey the true information the corporate insiders possess.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of institutional trading on the market quality during the financial crisis and short sale ban.

The following methods was applied to discuss the total impact on market quality and efficiency of short sale ban in USA from 2001 to 2010. The author examined institutional ownership and breadth of ownership while performing a mean variance tests for changes in efficiency as well as multivariate analysis.

Analyzing USA, Standard and Poor’s 500 stocks the author find increase high-low volatility, realized volatility, effective spread and relative quoted spread during January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2010. Realized volatility increases for both small and large quantile stocks. High-low volatility increases for small quantile stocks and relative quoted spread increases for large quantile stocks. Comparing the percentage change between pre and climax period we find that large quantile stocks have a negative association between breadth of institutional ownership and returns and a positive relation high-low volatility, realized effective spread and quoted spread to returns.

The present paper is the first to discuss the total impact on market quality and efficiency of short sale ban in USA from 2001 to 2010. The author find a remarkable improvement in market efficiency (variance ratios) after the crisis period for small and non-financial stocks, while the price efficiency lost during the crisis period is more persistent for large and financial stocks.

The aim of this paper is to provide a review of the literature on short selling. In particular, it seeks to describe the history of short selling and anti-shorting laws. With respect to short-selling regulation, the main emphasis will be placed on the UK FSA’s regulatory action.

This paper reviews the history of short selling and the development of anti-shorting laws, particularly with regard to the UK market. It also analyses the distinct literature on short selling.

The paper argues that the development of anti-shorting laws shows that regulators are instituting a policy unfavourable to short sellers. The opposers of short selling may be seen as lacking ideas and having the tendency to ban anything they do not like. Short sellers, on the other hand, may be seen as the elite bodyguards of the financial market whose job is to get rid of overvalued stocks, and ultimately keep the market safe and efficient. For this reason, short sellers deserve our praise and thanks, not our hatred and opprobrium.

To the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to review the history of short selling and the development of anti-shorting laws, particularly with regard to the UK market.