We examine how short sale constraints on portfolio holdings affect closed-end fund (CEF) discounts and thereby distinguish behavioral-based explanations from fundamental-based explanations of the discounts. Using Regulation SHO as a natural experiment that relaxes short-sale constraints on pilot...

By exploiting the exogenous COVID-19 shock, this paper attempts to shed light on the closed-end fund (CEF) discount puzzle. CEF discounts increased after COVID-19, and I identify a causal role of sentiment in this effect. I show that COVID-19 reduced individual investor sentiment. Using the...