Publication details

Fear of the coronavirus and the stock markets

Authors

LYÓCSA Štefan BAUMÖHL Eduard VÝROST Tomáš MOLNÁR Peter

Year of publication 2020
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Finance Research Letters
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Economics and Administration

Citation
Web https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612320310813
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.frl.2020.101735
Keywords Coronavirus; Stock market; Uncertainty; Panic; Google Trends
Attached files
Description Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, stock markets around the world have experienced unprecedented declines amid high uncertainty. In this paper, we use Google search volume activity as a gauge of panic and fear. The chosen search terms are specific to the coronavirus crisis and correspond to phrases related to nonpharmaceutical intervention policies to fight physical contagion. We show that during this period, fear of the coronavirus – manifested as excess search volume – represents a timely and valuable data source for forecasting stock price variation around the world.

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