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Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis Vol. 55 No. 2 2020

Googling Investor Sentiment around the World

Zhenyu Gao1; Haohan Ren2; Bohui Zhang1

1 Chinese University of Hong Kong · 2 Fudan University

Abstract

We study how investor sentiment affects stock prices around the world. Relying on households’ Google search behavior, we construct a weekly measure of sentiment for 38 countries during 2004–2014. We validate the sentiment index in tests using sports outcomes and show that the sentiment measure is a contrarian predictor of country-level market returns. Furthermore, we document an important role of global sentiment in stock markets.

DOI
10.1017/s0022109019000061
Volume
55
Issue
2
Pages
549-580
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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