IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/acctfi/v62y2022i5p4885-4917.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The effect of daily price limits on stock liquidity: Evidence from the Chinese stock market

Author

Listed:
  • Hao Li
  • Zhisheng Li

Abstract

This study uses a group of specially treated stocks to examine the effect of daily price limits in the Chinese stock market. We show that lower price limits significantly reduce liquidity and widen spreads. These results remain consistent when using difference‐in‐differences regressions with propensity score matching and after conducting regression discontinuity analyses. The findings are more prominent for firms experiencing lower‐limit hits, with higher disclosure quality and lower probability of informed trading before the limit changes. These findings suggest that restrictive price limits cause unexpected behaviour of informed traders, enhance information asymmetry, reduce stock liquidity, and hinder price discovery process.

Suggested Citation

  • Hao Li & Zhisheng Li, 2022. "The effect of daily price limits on stock liquidity: Evidence from the Chinese stock market," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(5), pages 4885-4917, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:acctfi:v:62:y:2022:i:5:p:4885-4917
    DOI: 10.1111/acfi.12989
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/acfi.12989
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/acfi.12989?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marianne Bertrand & Sendhil Mullainathan, 1999. "Is There a Discretion in Wage Setting? A Test Using Takeover Legislation," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 30(3), pages 535-554, Autumn.
    2. Chordia, Tarun & Roll, Richard & Subrahmanyam, Avanidhar, 2008. "Liquidity and market efficiency," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 249-268, February.
    3. Lien, Donald & Hung, Pi-Hsia & Zhu, Jia-De & Chen, Yi-Hsuan, 2019. "Price limit changes and market quality in the Taiwan Stock Exchange," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 239-258.
    4. Hautsch, Nikolaus & Horvath, Akos, 2019. "How effective are trading pauses?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(2), pages 378-403.
    5. Chiang, Raymond & Venkatesh, P C, 1988. " Insider Holdings and Perceptions of Information Asymmetry: A Note," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 43(4), pages 1041-1048, September.
    6. Pin‐Huang Chou & Mei‐Chen Lin & Min‐Teh Yu, 2003. "The effectiveness of coordinating price limits across futures and spot markets," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(6), pages 577-602, June.
    7. Ke, Bin & Huddart, Steven & Petroni, Kathy, 2003. "What insiders know about future earnings and how they use it: Evidence from insider trades," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 315-346, August.
    8. Vidović Jelena & Poklepović Tea & Aljinović Zdravka, 2014. "How to Measure Illiquidity on European Emerging Stock Markets?," Business Systems Research, Sciendo, vol. 5(3), pages 67-81, September.
    9. Marianne Bertrand & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2003. "Enjoying the Quiet Life? Corporate Governance and Managerial Preferences," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 111(5), pages 1043-1075, October.
    10. Kim, Kenneth & Rhee, S Ghon, 1997. "Price Limit Performance: Evidence from the Tokyo Stock Exchange," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(2), pages 885-899, June.
    11. Glosten, Lawrence R. & Milgrom, Paul R., 1985. "Bid, ask and transaction prices in a specialist market with heterogeneously informed traders," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 71-100, March.
    12. Seasholes, Mark S. & Wu, Guojun, 2007. "Predictable behavior, profits, and attention," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(5), pages 590-610, December.
    13. Easley, David, et al, 1996. "Liquidity, Information, and Infrequently Traded Stocks," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 51(4), pages 1405-1436, September.
    14. David S. Lee & Thomas Lemieux, 2010. "Regression Discontinuity Designs in Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(2), pages 281-355, June.
    15. Leippold, Markus & Wang, Qian & Zhou, Wenyu, 2022. "Machine learning in the Chinese stock market," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(2), pages 64-82.
    16. Lehmann, B.N., 1989. "Commentary: Volatility, Price Resolution, And The Effectiveness Of Price Limits," Papers t9, Columbia - Center for Futures Markets.
    17. Greenwald, Bruce C & Stein, Jeremy C, 1991. "Transactional Risk, Market Crashes, and the Role of Circuit Breakers," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64(4), pages 443-462, October.
    18. Alexander Kurov, 2008. "Investor Sentiment, Trading Behavior and Informational Efficiency in Index Futures Markets," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 43(1), pages 107-127, February.
    19. Kyle, Albert S, 1985. "Continuous Auctions and Insider Trading," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 53(6), pages 1315-1335, November.
    20. Sifat, Imtiaz Mohammad & Mohamad, Azhar, 2018. "Trading aggression when price limit hits are imminent: NARDL based intraday investigation of magnet effect," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 1-8.
    21. Ma, C.K. & Rao, R.P. & Sears, R.S., 1989. "Volatility, Price Resolution, And The Effectiveness Of Price Limits," Papers t7, Columbia - Center for Futures Markets.
    22. Grossman, Sanford J & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1980. "On the Impossibility of Informationally Efficient Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(3), pages 393-408, June.
    23. Paul Brockman & Dennis Y. Chung, 2003. "Investor Protection and Firm Liquidity," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(2), pages 921-938, April.
    24. Chordia, Tarun & Roll, Richard & Subrahmanyam, Avanidhar, 2005. "Evidence on the speed of convergence to market efficiency," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 271-292, May.
    25. Kewei Hou & Tobias J. Moskowitz, 2005. "Market Frictions, Price Delay, and the Cross-Section of Expected Returns," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 18(3), pages 981-1020.
    26. Westerhoff, Frank, 2003. "Speculative markets and the effectiveness of price limits," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 493-508, December.
    27. Haiwei Chen, 1998. "Price limits, overreaction, and price resolution in futures markets," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(3), pages 243-263, May.
    28. Mark Lang & Karl V. Lins & Mark Maffett, 2012. "Transparency, Liquidity, and Valuation: International Evidence on When Transparency Matters Most," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3), pages 729-774, June.
    29. Berkman, Henk & Lee, John Byong Tek, 2002. "The effectiveness of price limits in an emerging market: Evidence from the Korean Stock Exchange," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 10(5), pages 517-530, November.
    30. Ma, Rui & Anderson, Hamish D. & Marshall, Ben R., 2018. "Stock market liquidity and trading activity: Is China different?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 32-51.
    31. Ghysels, Eric & Pereira, João Pedro, 2008. "Liquidity and conditional portfolio choice: A nonparametric investigation," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 679-699, September.
    32. Imtiaz Mohammad Sifat & Azhar Mohamad & Zarinah Hamid, 2019. "Aberrant investor participation amid substantial price swings: high-frequency evidence of magnet-repellent effect from Malaysia," Macroeconomics and Finance in Emerging Market Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1), pages 71-94, January.
    33. Qingchong Chen & Xiong Xiong & Ya Gao, 2021. "Is information really efficient for the market? Evidence of confirmatory bias in China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(5), pages 5965-5997, December.
    34. Huang, Kelly, 2020. "Management forecast errors and corporate investment efficiency," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3).
    35. Easley, David & O'Hara, Maureen, 1987. "Price, trade size, and information in securities markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 69-90, September.
    36. Chen, Tao & Harford, Jarrad & Lin, Chen, 2015. "Do analysts matter for governance? Evidence from natural experiments," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(2), pages 383-410.
    37. Chan, Soon Huat & Kim, Kenneth A. & Rhee, S. Ghon, 2005. "Price limit performance: evidence from transactions data and the limit order book," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 269-290, March.
    38. Chen, Ting & Gao, Zhenyu & He, Jibao & Jiang, Wenxi & Xiong, Wei, 2019. "Daily price limits and destructive market behavior," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 208(1), pages 249-264.
    39. Brockman, Paul & Chung, Dennis Y, 2000. "Informed and Uninformed Trading in an Electronic, Order-Driven Environment," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 35(2), pages 125-146, May.
    40. McInish, Thomas H & Wood, Robert A, 1992. "An Analysis of Intraday Patterns in Bid/Ask Spreads for NYSE Stocks," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(2), pages 753-764, June.
    41. Jose M. Marin & Jacques P. Olivier, 2008. "The Dog That Did Not Bark: Insider Trading and Crashes," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(5), pages 2429-2476, October.
    42. Kenneth A. Kim & Jungsoo Park, 2010. "Why Do Price Limits Exist in Stock Markets? A Manipulation†Based Explanation," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 16(2), pages 296-318, March.
    43. Rhee, S. Ghon & Wang, Jianxin, 2009. "Foreign institutional ownership and stock market liquidity: Evidence from Indonesia," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(7), pages 1312-1324, July.
    44. Kim, Kenneth A., 2001. "Price limits and stock market volatility," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 131-136, April.
    45. Farag, Hisham, 2013. "Price limit bands, asymmetric volatility and stock market anomalies: Evidence from emerging markets," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 85-97.
    46. Ekkehart Boehmer & Juan (Julie) Wu, 2013. "Short Selling and the Price Discovery Process," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 26(2), pages 287-322.
    47. Kenneth A. Kim & Haixiao Liu & J. Jimmy Yang, 2013. "Reconsidering Price Limit Effectiveness," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 36(4), pages 493-518, December.
    48. Thorsten Beck & Ross Levine & Alexey Levkov, 2010. "Big Bad Banks? The Winners and Losers from Bank Deregulation in the United States," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(5), pages 1637-1667, October.
    49. Diamond, Douglas W & Verrecchia, Robert E, 1991. "Disclosure, Liquidity, and the Cost of Capital," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(4), pages 1325-1359, September.
    50. Mark J. Garmaise & Gabriel Natividad, 2010. "Information, the Cost of Credit, and Operational Efficiency: An Empirical Study of Microfinance," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(6), pages 2560-2590, June.
    51. Baker, Malcolm & Pan, Xin & Wurgler, Jeffrey, 2012. "The effect of reference point prices on mergers and acquisitions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(1), pages 49-71.
    52. Wong, Woon K. & Tan, Dijun & Tian, Yixiang, 2009. "Informed trading and liquidity in the Shanghai Stock Exchange," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 18(1-2), pages 66-73, March.
    53. Andrew Koch & Stefan Ruenzi & Laura Starks, 2016. "Editor's Choice Commonality in Liquidity: A Demand-Side Explanation," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(8), pages 1943-1974.
    54. Paul Brockman & Dennis Y. Chung, 2003. "Investor Protection and Firm Liquidity," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(2), pages 921-937, April.
    55. Li, Huimin & Zheng, Dazhi & Chen, Jun, 2014. "Effectiveness, cause and impact of price limit—Evidence from China's cross-listed stocks," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 217-241.
    56. Baruch, Shmuel & Panayides, Marios & Venkataraman, Kumar, 2017. "Informed trading and price discovery before corporate events," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(3), pages 561-588.
    57. Ekkehart Boehmer & Eric K. Kelley, 2009. "Institutional Investors and the Informational Efficiency of Prices," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(9), pages 3563-3594, September.
    58. Hahn, Jinyong & Todd, Petra & Van der Klaauw, Wilbert, 2001. "Identification and Estimation of Treatment Effects with a Regression-Discontinuity Design," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(1), pages 201-209, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhongfei Chen & Yu Xiao & Kangqi Jiang, 2023. "Corporate green innovation and stock liquidity in China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(S1), pages 1381-1415, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Imtiaz Mohammad Sifat & Azhar Mohamad, 2019. "Circuit breakers as market stability levers: A survey of research, praxis, and challenges," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(3), pages 1130-1169, July.
    2. Sifat, Imtiaz Mohammad & Mohamad, Azhar, 2020. "A survey on the magnet effect of circuit breakers in financial markets," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 138-151.
    3. Jagjeev Dosanjh, 2017. "Exchange Initiatives and Market Efficiency: Evidence from the Australian Securities Exchange," PhD Thesis, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney, number 1-2017.
    4. repec:uts:finphd:34 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Tang, Siyuan, 2023. "Price limit performance: New evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China's ChiNext market," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    6. Seza Danışoğlu & Z. Nuray Güner, 2018. "Do price limits help control stock price volatility?," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 260(1), pages 129-157, January.
    7. Bing, Tao & Cui, Yian & Min, Ying & Xiong, Xiong, 2022. "Price limit changes and market quality: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    8. Chen, Haiqiang & Gu, Ming & Ni, Bo, 2023. "How price limit affects the market efficiency in a short-sale constrained market? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 22-39.
    9. Pham, Mia Hang, 2020. "In law we trust: Lawyer CEOs and stock liquidity," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    10. Zhang, Xiaotao & Wang, Ziqiao & Hao, Jing & He, Feng, 2022. "Price limit and stock market quality: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in the Chinese stock market," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    11. Clapham, Benjamin & Gomber, Peter & Haferkorn, Martin & Panz, Sven, 2017. "Managing excess volatility: Design and effectiveness of circuit breakers," SAFE Working Paper Series 195, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    12. Zhang, Chris H. & Frijns, Bart, 2019. "Noise trading and informational efficiency," EconStor Preprints 198037, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    13. Zhang, Chris H. & Kalev, Petko S., 2021. "How noise trading affects informational efficiency: Evidence from an order-driven market," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    14. Chu, Shan-Ying & Chan, Lin Kun & Yeh, Jin-Huei, 2019. "The stabilizing effects of price limits: New evidence from jump contributed price variations," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 529-539.
    15. Pham, Thu Phuong & Singh, Harminder & Vu, Van Hoang, 2023. "The impact of bank loan announcements on stock liquidity," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 848-864.
    16. Yildiz, Serhat & Van Ness, Bonnie & Van Ness, Robert, 2020. "VPIN, liquidity, and return volatility in the U.S. equity markets," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).
    17. Ding, Xiaoya (Sara) & Ni, Yang & Zhong, Ligang, 2016. "Free float and market liquidity around the world," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(PA), pages 236-257.
    18. Deb, Saikat Sovan & Kalev, Petko S & Marisetty, Vijaya B, 2017. "Price limits and volatility," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 142-156.
    19. Moshirian, Fariborz & Qian, Xiaolin & Wee, Claudia Koon Ghee & Zhang, Bohui, 2017. "The determinants and pricing of liquidity commonality around the world," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 22-41.
    20. Lee, Jieun & Ryu, Doojin, 2019. "How does FX liquidity affect the relationship between foreign ownership and stock liquidity?," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 101-119.
    21. Zhang, Xiaotao & Li, Xinxian & Hao, Jing & Li, Peigong, 2023. "Price limit change and magnet effect: The role of investor attention," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:acctfi:v:62:y:2022:i:5:p:4885-4917. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaanzea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.