Dangerous infectious diseases: Bad news for Main Street, good news for Wall Street?

Michael Donadelli, Renatas Kizys and Max Riedel

Journal of Financial Markets, 2017, vol. 35, issue C, 84-103

Abstract: We examine whether investor mood, driven by World Health Organization (WHO) alerts and media news on dangerous infectious diseases, is priced in pharmaceutical companies' stocks in the United States. We argue that disease-related news (DRNs) should not trigger rational trading. We find that DRNs have a positive and significant sentiment effect among investors (on Wall Street). The effect is stronger (weaker) for small (large) companies, who are less (more) likely to engage in the development of new vaccines. A potential negative investor climate (on Main Street) – induced by disease-related fear – does not alter the positive sentiment effect.

Keywords: WHO alerts; Investor sentiment; Pharmaceutical industry; Trading strategies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G11 G14 I11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (56)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:finmar:v:35:y:2017:i:c:p:84-103

DOI: 10.1016/j.finmar.2016.12.003

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