This study examines the effect of short-sale constraints on a stock
market, in particular, on stock prices, trading volume, and the
relationship between stock price movements and output cycles. The
economic model features incomplete markets and heterogeneous agents.
The short-sale constraint is endogenously determined in the economy
and is a function of agents' risk aversion, time preference, and
exogenous driving forces. The dynamic model is solved using a policy
function iteration algorithm. We find that, for an array of
reasonable time-preference parameters and risk-aversion coefficients,
the short sale limits range from 27 to 45% of total outstanding
shares. Imposing short-sale constraints causes stock prices to move
upward. Trading volume is high when some agents have a large amount of
stock holdings but incur a negative shock on their nonfinancial
income and is low when some agents have few stock holdings and also
incur a negative shock to their nonfinancial income. Stock prices are
found to be countercyclical and the expected stock returns are
procyclical. These countercyclical stock-price movements are shown
to be related to the imposition of a short-sale constraint.