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"Shooting the Messenger?" The Impact of Short Sale Bans in Times of Crisis

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  • Ian Appel
  • Caroline Fohlin

Abstract

We find that the bans on covered short sales, implemented in several countries during the financial crisis of 2008-09 improved market liquidity or at least had a neutral impact; a result we argue could be expected in theory, given a simple variation on the Diamond-Verrechia (1987) model. The result holds for daily data over an extended period as well as for intraday data over various time spans. In contrast to other recent studies, we use American Depository Receipts as the controls in a difference-in-difference analysis encompassing all banned non-U.S. shares with corresponding depository receipts listed in the United States. Furthermore, we find that bans on covered short sales generally succeeded in lowering volatility. Banning short selling is not good policy in normal times, but our findings indicate that such bans might prove useful in (temporarily) stemming liquidity loss during crises.

Suggested Citation

  • Ian Appel & Caroline Fohlin, 2010. ""Shooting the Messenger?" The Impact of Short Sale Bans in Times of Crisis," Economics Working Paper Archive 574, The Johns Hopkins University,Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:jhu:papers:574
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    Cited by:

    1. Previati, Daniele Angelo & Galloppo, Giuseppe & Aliano, Mauro & Paimanova, Viktoria, 2021. "Why do banks react differently to short-selling bans? Evidence from the Asia-Pacific area and the United States," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 144-158.
    2. Gary Gorton, 2015. "Stress for Success: A Review of Timothy Geithner's Financial Crisis Memoir," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 53(4), pages 975-995, December.
    3. Gary Gorton & Ellis W. Tallman, 2016. "How Did Pre-Fed Banking Panics End?," NBER Working Papers 22036, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Daniele Angelo Previati & Giuseppe Galloppo & Mauro Aliano & Viktoriia Paimanova, 2017. "Why Do US Banks React Differently to Short Selling Bans?," Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Banking and Financial Institutions, in: Giusy Chesini & Elisa Giaretta & Andrea Paltrinieri (ed.), The Business of Banking, chapter 0, pages 79-108, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Seungho Lee, 2022. "The COVID-19 pandemic, short-sale ban, and market efficiency: empirical evidence from the European equity markets," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(2), pages 156-171, March.
    6. Jani Saastamoinen & Niko Suhonen, 2013. "Were the European short selling bans of 2011 effective?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 33(3), pages 1847-1851.
    7. Fohlin, Caroline & Lu, Zhikun & Zhou, Nan, 2022. "Short sale bans may improve market quality during crises: New evidence from the 2020 Covid," SAFE Working Paper Series 365, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.

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