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Passive Ownership and Short Selling

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Abstract

We exploit quasi-exogenous variation in passive ownership around the Russell 1000/2000 cutoff to explore the causal effects of passive ownership on the securities lending market. We find that passive ownership causes an increase in lendable supply and short interest, while lending fees remain largely unchanged. The utilization ratio—i.e., the ratio of short interest over lendable supply—goes up, implying that shorting demand increases more than lendable supply. We argue that this additional demand results from an increase in the quality of lendable supply as passive funds are less likely to recall stock loans. Finally, we document that passive ownership-induced short selling improves information efficiency around negative earnings news.

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  • Pekka Honkanen & Daniel Schmidt & Bastian von Beschwitz, 2022. "Passive Ownership and Short Selling," International Finance Discussion Papers 1365, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedgif:1365
    DOI: 10.17016/IFDP.2022.1365
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    short selling; securities lending; etfs;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets

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