Effects of Credit Expansions on Stock Market Booms and Busts
Household credit expansions often coincide with high stock-market valuations, but identifying a causal relationship remains challenging. Because unconstrained arbitrageurs play a pivotal role in stock-pricing, the impact of credit is not obvious (despite evidence in less-liquid housing markets). Further, given margin restrictions, credit may leak into stock prices in difficult-to-measure ways. We address these issues using an unprecedented 2010-2015 regulatory expansion of margin lending in China. Institutional fund trades and regression discontinuity evidence suggest a positive impact on prices that was largely anticipated by unconstrained investors. We develop a dynamic panel model of stock prices and recover large causal estimates.
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