J'Accuse! Antisemitism and financial markets in the time of the Dreyfus Affair

Quoc-Anh Do (), Roberto Galbiati (), Benjamin Marx () and Miguel Ortiz Serrano
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Quoc-Anh Do: Monash university
Roberto Galbiati: ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Benjamin Marx: BU - Boston University [Boston]
Miguel Ortiz Serrano: Centro Universitario de Estudios Financieros (CUNEF) - Centro Universitario de Estudios Financieros (CUNEF)

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Abstract: We study the stock market performance of firms with Jewish board members during the "Dreyfus Affair" in 19th century France. In a context of widespread latent antisemitism, initial accusations made against the Jewish officer Alfred Dreyfus led to short-lived abnormal negative returns for Jewish-connected firms. However, investors betting on these firms earned higher returns during the period corresponding to Dreyfus' rehabilitation, starting with the publication of the famous op-ed J'Accuse! in 1898. Our conceptual framework illustrates how diminishing antisemitic biases among investors might plausibly explain these effects. Our paper provides novel insights on how antisemitism can increase and decrease over short periods of time at the highest socio-economic levels in response to certain events, which in turn can affect firm value in financial markets.

Keywords: JEL; classification:; J15; J71; N23; G14; Antisemitism; Financial; markets; Discrimination (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-04799081v1
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Published in Journal of Financial Economics, 2024, 154, pp.103809. ⟨10.1016/j.jfineco.2024.103809⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-04799081

DOI: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2024.103809

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