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Do political factors affect stock returns during presidential elections?

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  • Shen, Chung-Hua
  • Bui, Dien Giau
  • Lin, Chih-Yung

Abstract

This study investigates whether or not political factors such as government policy and political connections affected stock returns during the 2008 Taiwanese presidential election. We find that firms that benefitted from (were threatened by) the proposed Three-Links policy of the winning party experienced positive (negative) stock returns during the election. We use the sensitivities of firms’ returns to bilateral trade flows between Taiwan and China to measure the government-policy effect. Our results show that the effects of political connections weakly exist, but they become more significant when the support ratio of the winning party increased in polling data. We also find that only the government-policy effect holds for different crash-risk and corporate-governance levels. Finally, investment strategies based on both political factors can generate positive abnormal returns with respect to the Fama-French Three-factor Model.

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  • Shen, Chung-Hua & Bui, Dien Giau & Lin, Chih-Yung, 2017. "Do political factors affect stock returns during presidential elections?," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 180-198.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jimfin:v:77:y:2017:i:c:p:180-198
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jimonfin.2017.07.019
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    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G18 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill

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