This study investigates whether short selling, as a market mechanism, has a disciplining function for firms’ investment efficiency, measured through the association between capital investment and future cash flows. Using a sample of large Australian listed firms, we find that short-selling activities improve the positive relationship between capital investment and future cash flow and that this effect is mainly driven by firms with a risk management committee (RMC). Additional analyses show that the disciplining function of short selling for firms’ investment efficiency varies with (i) the level of firms’ financial constraints, (ii) firms’ life cycle or (iii) CEO share incentives. The main results are robust to a batch of endogeneity tests to address the potential self-selection bias and the concern about reverse causality.

这项研究调查了作为市场机制的卖空是否通过资本投资和未来现金流量之间的联系来衡量企业的投资效率的纪律功能。通过对澳大利亚大型上市公司的抽样研究，我们发现卖空活动改善了资本投资与未来现金流量之间的正相关关系，而这种影响主要是由拥有风险管理委员会（RMC）的公司所驱动的。进一步的分析表明，卖空对公司投资效率的约束作用随（i）公司的财务约束水平，（ii）公司的生命周期或（iii）CEO股权激励而变化。主要结果对于一批内生性测试是可靠的，以解决潜在的自我选择偏见和对反向因果关系的担忧。