Baker, Scott R.
[Author]
;
Bloom, Nicholas
[Other];
Davis, Steven J.
[Other];
Kost, Kyle J.
[Other];
Sammon, Marco C.
[Other];
Viratyosin, Tasaneeya
[Other]National Bureau of Economic Research
imprint:
Cambridge, Mass: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2020
Published in:NBER working paper series ; no. w26945
Extent:
1 Online-Ressource; illustrations (black and white)
Language:
English
DOI:
10.3386/w26945
Identifier:
Reproduction note:
Hardcopy version available to institutional subscribers
Origination:
Footnote:
System requirements: Adobe [Acrobat] Reader required for PDF files
Mode of access: World Wide Web
Description:
No previous infectious disease outbreak, including the Spanish Flu, has impacted the stock market as forcefully as the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, previous pandemics left only mild traces on the U.S. stock market. We use text-based methods to develop these points with respect to large daily stock market moves back to 1900 and with respect to overall stock market volatility back to 1985. We also evaluate potential explanations for the unprecedented stock market reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic. The evidence we amass suggests that government restrictions on commercial activity and voluntary social distancing, operating with powerful effects in a service-oriented economy, are the main reasons the U.S. stock market reacted so much more forcefully to COVID-19 than to previous pandemics in 1918-19, 1957-58 and 1968