IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jfinec/v154y2024ics0304405x24000321.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • Do, Quoc-Anh
  • Galbiati, Roberto
  • Marx, Benjamin
  • Ortiz Serrano, Miguel A.

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Do, Quoc-Anh & Galbiati, Roberto & Marx, Benjamin & Ortiz Serrano, Miguel A., 2024. "J'Accuse! Antisemitism and financial markets in the time of the Dreyfus Affair," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfinec:v:154:y:2024:i:c:s0304405x24000321
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2024.103809
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304405X24000321
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jfineco.2024.103809?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James O’Donovan & Hannes F Wagner & Stefan Zeume, 2019. "The Value of Offshore Secrets: Evidence from the Panama Papers," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(11), pages 4117-4155.
    2. Landes, David S., 1949. "French Entrepreneurship and Industrial Growth in the Nineteenth Century," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(1), pages 45-61, May.
    3. Pierre-Cyrille Hautcoeur & Angelo Riva, 2007. "The Paris financial market in the 19th century: an efficient multi-polar organization?," Working Papers halshs-00587812, HAL.
    4. Dmitry Arkhangelsky & Susan Athey & David A. Hirshberg & Guido W. Imbens & Stefan Wager, 2021. "Synthetic Difference-in-Differences," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(12), pages 4088-4118, December.
    5. Barrera, Oscar & Guriev, Sergei & Henry, Emeric & Zhuravskaya, Ekaterina, 2020. "Facts, alternative facts, and fact checking in times of post-truth politics," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    6. Hong, Harrison & Kostovetsky, Leonard, 2012. "Red and blue investing: Values and finance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(1), pages 1-19.
    7. Thomas Ferguson & Hans-Joachim Voth, 2008. "Betting on Hitler—The Value of Political Connections in Nazi Germany," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(1), pages 101-137.
    8. J. Aislinn Bohren & Alex Imas & Michael Rosenberg, 2019. "The Dynamics of Discrimination: Theory and Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(10), pages 3395-3436, October.
    9. Stefan Szymanski, 2010. "A Market Test for Discrimination in the English Professional Soccer Leagues," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Football Economics and Policy, chapter 6, pages 136-150, Palgrave Macmillan.
    10. Sascha O. Becker & Luigi Pascali, 2019. "Religion, Division of Labor, and Conflict: Anti-semitism in Germany over 600 Years," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(5), pages 1764-1804, May.
    11. Black, Dan A, 1995. "Discrimination in an Equilibrium Search Model," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 13(2), pages 309-333, April.
    12. Raymond Fisman & Yasushi Hamao & Yongxiang Wang, 2014. "Nationalism and Economic Exchange: Evidence from Shocks to Sino-Japanese Relations," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 27(9), pages 2626-2660.
    13. Iacus, Stefano M. & King, Gary & Porro, Giuseppe, 2011. "Multivariate Matching Methods That Are Monotonic Imbalance Bounding," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 106(493), pages 345-361.
    14. Alexandra Niessen-Ruenzi & Stefan Ruenzi, 2019. "Sex Matters: Gender Bias in the Mutual Fund Industry," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(7), pages 3001-3025, July.
    15. James J. Heckman, 1998. "Detecting Discrimination," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 101-116, Spring.
    16. Dimitri Vayanos & Jiang Wang, 2012. "Liquidity and Asset Returns Under Asymmetric Information and Imperfect Competition," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(5), pages 1339-1365.
    17. De Long, J Bradford & Shleifer, Andrei & Summers, Lawrence H & Waldmann, Robert J, 1991. "The Survival of Noise Traders in Financial Markets," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64(1), pages 1-19, January.
    18. Justin Wolfers, 2006. "Diagnosing Discrimination: Stock Returns and CEO Gender," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 4(2-3), pages 531-541, 04-05.
    19. Doerr, Sebastian & Gissler, Stefan & Peydró, José-Luis & Voth, Hans-Joachim, 2022. "Financial crises and political radicalization: How failing banks paved Hitler’s path to power," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 77(6), pages 3339-3372.
    20. Kawaguchi, Daiji, 2007. "A market test for sex discrimination: Evidence from Japanese firm-level panel data," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 441-460, June.
    21. Matthew S. Goldberg, 1982. "Discrimination, Nepotism, and Long-Run Wage Differentials," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 97(2), pages 307-319.
    22. Morck, Randall K. (ed.), 2007. "A History of Corporate Governance around the World," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226536811.
    23. Andrea Weber & Christine Zulehner, 2014. "Competition And Gender Prejudice: Are Discriminatory Employers Doomed To Fail?," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 492-521, April.
    24. Sebastian Doerr & Stefan Gissler & José-Luis Peydró & Hans-Joachim Voth, 2018. "From finance to fascism," Economics Working Papers 1651, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Nov 2020.
    25. Judith K. Hellerstein & David Neumark & Kenneth R. Troske, 2002. "Market Forces and Sex Discrimination," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 37(2), pages 353-380.
    26. Nico Voigtländer & Hans-Joachim Voth, 2012. "Persecution Perpetuated: The Medieval Origins of Anti-Semitic Violence in Nazi Germany," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 127(3), pages 1339-1392.
    27. Kilian Huber & Volker Lindenthal & Fabian Waldinger, 2021. "Discrimination, Managers, and Firm Performance: Evidence from “Aryanizations” in Nazi Germany," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 129(9), pages 2455-2503.
    28. Bryan Kelly & Ľuboš Pástor & Pietro Veronesi, 2016. "The Price of Political Uncertainty: Theory and Evidence from the Option Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 71(5), pages 2417-2480, October.
    29. Pierre-Cyrille Hautcoeur & Amir Rezaee & Angelo Riva, 2023. "Competition between securities markets: stock exchange industry regulation in the Paris financial center at the turn of the twentieth century," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 17(2), pages 261-299, May.
    30. Mark Grinblatt & Matti Keloharju, 2001. "How Distance, Language, and Culture Influence Stockholdings and Trades," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(3), pages 1053-1073, June.
    31. Waldinger, Fabian & Huber, Kilian & Lindenthal, Volker, 2018. "Discrimination, Managers, and Firm Performance: Evidence from “Aryanizations†in Nazi Germany," CEPR Discussion Papers 13089, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    32. Ortiz-Serrano, Miguel Ángel, 2018. "Political connections and stock returns: evidence from the Boulangist campaign, 1888–1889," Financial History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 25(3), pages 323-356, December.
    33. De Long, J Bradford & Andrei Shleifer & Lawrence H. Summers & Robert J. Waldmann, 1990. "Noise Trader Risk in Financial Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(4), pages 703-738, August.
    34. Iacus, Stefano M. & King, Gary & Porro, Giuseppe, 2012. "Causal Inference without Balance Checking: Coarsened Exact Matching," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(1), pages 1-24, January.
    35. Gur Huberman & Tomer Regev, 2001. "Contagious Speculation and a Cure for Cancer: A Nonevent that Made Stock Prices Soar," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(1), pages 387-396, February.
    36. Palomino, Frederic, 1996. "Noise Trading in Small Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 51(4), pages 1537-1550, September.
    37. Irena Grosfeld & Seyhun Orcan Sakalli & Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, 2020. "Middleman Minorities and Ethnic Violence: Anti-Jewish Pogroms in the Russian Empire," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 87(1), pages 289-342.
    38. Alexis Grigorieff & Christopher Roth & Diego Ubfal, 2020. "Does Information Change Attitudes Toward Immigrants?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(3), pages 1117-1143, June.
    39. Danling Jiang & Alok Kumar & Kelvin K. F. Law, 2016. "Political contributions and analyst behavior," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 37-88, March.
    40. Alok Kumar & Alexandra Niessen-Ruenzi & Oliver G. Spalt, 2015. "What's in a Name? Mutual Fund Flows When Managers Have Foreign-Sounding Names," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 28(8), pages 2281-2321.
    41. Kevin Lang & Jee-Yeon K. Lehmann, 2012. "Racial Discrimination in the Labor Market: Theory and Empirics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 50(4), pages 959-1006, December.
    42. John A. List, 2004. "The Nature and Extent of Discrimination in the Marketplace: Evidence from the Field," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 49-89.
    43. Hong, Harrison & Kacperczyk, Marcin, 2009. "The price of sin: The effects of social norms on markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1), pages 15-36, July.
    44. Kevin Lang & Michael Manove & William T. Dickens, 2005. "Racial Discrimination in Labor Markets with Posted Wage Offers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(4), pages 1327-1340, September.
    45. Jung, Jay Heon & Kumar, Alok & Lim, Sonya S. & Yoo, Choong-Yuel, 2019. "An analyst by any other surname: Surname favorability and market reaction to analyst forecasts," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 306-335.
    46. Abhijit Banerjee & Kaivan Munshi, 2004. "How Efficiently is Capital Allocated? Evidence from the Knitted Garment Industry in Tirupur," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 71(1), pages 19-42.
    47. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo, 2016. "Field Experiments on Discrimination," NBER Working Papers 22014, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    48. Hutton, Irena & Jiang, Danling & Kumar, Alok, 2014. "Corporate Policies of Republican Managers," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 49(5-6), pages 1279-1310, December.
    49. Kerwin Kofi Charles & Jonathan Guryan, 2008. "Prejudice and Wages: An Empirical Assessment of Becker's The Economics of Discrimination," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 116(5), pages 773-809, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/5stdfj99hg96f8n537oi1mkfo9 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Quoc-Anh Do & Roberto Galbiati & Benjamin Marx & Miguel a Ortiz Serrano, 2020. "J’Accuse! Antisemitism and Financial Markets in the time of the Dreyfus Affair," Working Papers hal-02957438, HAL.
    3. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/5stdfj99hg96f8n537oi1mkfo9 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/5stdfj99hg96f8n537oi1mkfo9 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Quoc-Anh Do & Roberto Galbiati & Benjamin Marx & Miguel a Ortiz Serrano, 2020. "J’Accuse! Antisemitism and Financial Markets in the time of the Dreyfus Affair," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-02957438, HAL.
    6. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/5stdfj99hg96f8n537oi1mkfo9 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Do, Quoc-Anh & Galbiati, Roberto & Marx, Benjamin & Ortiz Serrano, Miguel Angel, 2020. "J'Accuse! Antisemitism and Financial Markets in the time of the Dreyfus Affair," CEPR Discussion Papers 14826, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Kilian Huber & Volker Lindenthal & Fabian Waldinger, 2021. "Discrimination, Managers, and Firm Performance: Evidence from “Aryanizations” in Nazi Germany," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 129(9), pages 2455-2503.
    9. David Hirshleife, 2015. "Behavioral Finance," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 7(1), pages 133-159, December.
    10. Desai, Pranav, 2021. "Essays in corporate finance and innovation," Other publications TiSEM 1ef5fdc6-9c52-43df-be1a-d, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    11. David Neumark, 2018. "Experimental Research on Labor Market Discrimination," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 56(3), pages 799-866, September.
    12. Lepage, Louis Pierre, 2020. "Endogenous learning and the persistence of employer biases in the labor market," CLEF Working Paper Series 24, Canadian Labour Economics Forum (CLEF), University of Waterloo.
    13. Yasuda, Hiroki, 2023. "Employers’ stereotypes and taste-based discrimination," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    14. Andrea Weber & Christine Zulehner, 2014. "Competition And Gender Prejudice: Are Discriminatory Employers Doomed To Fail?," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 492-521, April.
    15. David Hirshleifer, 2001. "Investor Psychology and Asset Pricing," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(4), pages 1533-1597, August.
    16. Batsaikhan, Mongoljin & Gørtz, Mette & Kennes, John & Lyng, Ran Sun & Monte, Daniel & Tumennasan, Norovsambuu, 2021. "Discrimination and Daycare Choice: Evidence from a Randomized Survey," IZA Discussion Papers 14874, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Ederington, Josh & Sandford, Jeremy, 2016. "Employer discrimination and market structure: Does more concentration mean more discrimination?," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 1-33.
    18. Daniel Greene & Jaideep Shenoy, 2022. "How Do Anti-discrimination Laws Affect Firm Performance and Financial Policies? Evidence from the Post-World War II Period," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(5), pages 3813-3833, May.
    19. Roland G. Fryer, Jr. & Devah Pager & Jörg L. Spenkuch, 2013. "Racial Disparities in Job Finding and Offered Wages," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(3), pages 633-689.
    20. Fanfani, Bernardo, 2022. "Tastes for discrimination in monopsonistic labour markets," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    21. Enrico Rubolino, 2022. "Taxing the Gender Gap: Labor Market Effects of a Payroll Tax Cut for Women in Italy," Cahiers de Recherches Economiques du Département d'économie 22.01, Université de Lausanne, Faculté des HEC, Département d’économie.
    22. DeVault, Luke & Sias, Richard, 2017. "Hedge fund politics and portfolios," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 80-97.
    23. Mongoljin Batsaikhan & Mette Gørtz & John Kennes & Ran Sun Lyng & Daniel Monte & Norovsambuu Tumennasan, 2019. "Daycare Choice and Ethnic Diversity: Evidence from a Randomized Survey," Economics Working Papers 2019-02, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    24. Kristian S. Blickle, 2020. "Pandemics Change Cities: Municipal Spending and Voter Extremism in Germany, 1918-1933," Staff Reports 921, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Antisemitism; Financial markets; Discrimination;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing
    • N23 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G41 - Financial Economics - - Behavioral Finance - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making in Financial Markets

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jfinec:v:154:y:2024:i:c:s0304405x24000321. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505576 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.