“Knowing what we know now, I believe on balance, thecommission would not do it [short-sale ban on financials]again. The costs appear to outweigh the benefits.”—Christopher Cox, Former Chair of the U.S. Securitiesand Exchange Commission.1In times of crisis, regulators of financial mar-kets are increasingly turning to bans of short-saletransactions as a market-stabilizing tool. Forexample, on the heels of the market turmoilassociated with the bankruptcy announcement ofLehman Brothers on September 19, 2008, marketregulators around the world banned the short sale of financial sector stocks. Similarly, in the sum-mer of 2011, European market regulators bannedshort selling of sovereign bonds and stocks seek-ing to stabilize markets in a tailspin over sovereigndebt default concerns.1 This paper surveys theresearch on the impacts of short-sale bans onfinancial markets.Proponents of such actions argue that short sellingencourages speculation and price manipulation,unjustly reducing asset values with the potentialto contribute to self-perpetuating price spirals intimes of panic.2 Commenting on a ban of nakedshort positions imposed in July 2008, acting SECSecretary, Florence Harmon, stated: “We intendthese and similar actions to provide powerful dis-incentives to those who might otherwise engagein illegal market manipulation through the dis-semination of false rumors and thereby over time
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