Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/60838
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
Staff Report No. 518
Publisher: 
Federal Reserve Bank of New York, New York, NY
Abstract: 
In response to the sharp decline in prices of financial stocks in the fall of 2008, regulators in a number of countries banned short selling of particular stocks and industries. Evidence suggests that these bans did little to stop the slide in stock prices, but significantly increased costs of liquidity. In August 2011, the U.S. market experienced a large decline when Standard and Poor's announced a downgrade of U.S. debt. Our cross-sectional tests suggest that the decline in stock prices was not significantly driven or amplified by short selling. Short selling does not appear to be the root cause of recent stock market declines. Furthermore, banning short selling does not appear to prevent stock prices from falling when firm-specific or economy-wide economic fundamentals are weak, and may impose high costs on market participants.
Subjects: 
short selling
down grade
JEL: 
G01
G12
G14
G18
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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