The impact of margin trading and short selling on the investment-to-price sensitivity. Evidence from China

Employing a database of seven successive short-selling and margin trading ban lifts in the Chinese stock markets during the period 2010–2020, I investigate the impact of leveraged trading transactions on the investment-to-price sensitivity. I also examine whether stock liquidity and institutional shareholdings affect the investment sensitivity subsequent to the lift of short-selling and margin trading constraints. The results from the panel data regression analysis show that lifting bans lead to less corporate investment and a decrease of the investment-to-price sensitivity between 0.29% and 0.44%. Moreover, the regression results reveal that the investment-to-price sensitivity is stronger for more liquid stocks, while the proportion of institutional shareholdings does not affect significantly the corporate investment sensitivity.