This study examines the relationship between positive and negative investor sentiments and stock market returns and volatility in Group of 20 countries using variousmethods, including panel regression with fixed effec...This study examines the relationship between positive and negative investor sentiments and stock market returns and volatility in Group of 20 countries using variousmethods, including panel regression with fixed effects, panel quantile regressions, apanel vector autoregression (PVAR) model, and country-specific regressions. We proxyfor negative and positive investor sentiments using the Google Search Volume Indexfor terms related to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and COVID-19 vaccine, respectively. Using weekly data from March 2020 to May 2021, we document significantrelationships between positive and negative investor sentiments and stock marketreturns and volatility. Specifically, an increase in positive investor sentiment leads toan increase in stock returns while negative investor sentiment decreases stock returnsat lower quantiles. The effect of investor sentiment on volatility is consistent acrossthe distribution: negative sentiment increases volatility, whereas positive sentimentreduces volatility. These results are robust as they are corroborated by Granger causalitytests and a PVAR model. The findings may have portfolio implications as they indicatethat proxies for positive and negative investor sentiments seem to be good predictorsof stock returns and volatility during the pandemic.展开更多
文摘This study examines the relationship between positive and negative investor sentiments and stock market returns and volatility in Group of 20 countries using variousmethods, including panel regression with fixed effects, panel quantile regressions, apanel vector autoregression (PVAR) model, and country-specific regressions. We proxyfor negative and positive investor sentiments using the Google Search Volume Indexfor terms related to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and COVID-19 vaccine, respectively. Using weekly data from March 2020 to May 2021, we document significantrelationships between positive and negative investor sentiments and stock marketreturns and volatility. Specifically, an increase in positive investor sentiment leads toan increase in stock returns while negative investor sentiment decreases stock returnsat lower quantiles. The effect of investor sentiment on volatility is consistent acrossthe distribution: negative sentiment increases volatility, whereas positive sentimentreduces volatility. These results are robust as they are corroborated by Granger causalitytests and a PVAR model. The findings may have portfolio implications as they indicatethat proxies for positive and negative investor sentiments seem to be good predictorsof stock returns and volatility during the pandemic.
