Initial Margin Requirements and Market Efficiency
Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis
We analyze the period, 1934-1971, when the Federal Reserve changed margin requirements for investors 22 times, and we document a significant decline in stock market efficiency when margin requirements were higher, embodied in greater investor underreaction to earnings news
Paul Koch is the Kent Corporation Chair in Business and professor of finance. His paper is published in the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis.