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Asset returns, news topics, and media effects

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  • Vegard H ghaug Larsen

  • Leif Anders Thorsrud

Abstract

We decompose the textual data in a daily Norwegian business newspaper into news topics and investigate their predictive and causal role for asset prices. Our three main findings are: (1) a one unit innovation in the news topics predict roughly a 1 percentage point increase in close-to-open returns and significant continuation patterns peaking at 4 percentage points after 15 business days, with little sign of reversal; (2) simple zero-cost news-based investment strategies yield significant annualized risk-adjusted returns of up to 20 percent; and (3) during a media shortage, due to an exogenous strike, returns for firms particularly exposed to our news measure experience a substantial fall. Our estimates suggest that between 20 to 40 percent of the news topics predictive power is due to the causal media effect. Together these findings lend strong support for a rational attention view where the media alleviate information frictions and disseminate fundamental information to a large population of investors.

Suggested Citation

  • Vegard H ghaug Larsen & Leif Anders Thorsrud, 2017. "Asset returns, news topics, and media effects," Working Papers No 5/2017, Centre for Applied Macro- and Petroleum economics (CAMP), BI Norwegian Business School.
    • Handle: RePEc:bny:wpaper:0054
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    Cited by:

    1. Vegard H. Larsen & Leif Anders Thorsrud & Julia Zhulanova, 2019. "News-driven inflation expectations and information rigidities," Working Papers No 03/2019, Centre for Applied Macro- and Petroleum economics (CAMP), BI Norwegian Business School.
    2. Lino Wehrheim, 2019. "Economic history goes digital: topic modeling the Journal of Economic History," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 13(1), pages 83-125, January.
    3. Daniel Borup & Jorge Wolfgang Hansen & Benjamin Dybro Liengaard & Erik Christian Montes Schütte, 2023. "Quantifying investor narratives and their role during COVID‐19," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(4), pages 512-532, June.
    4. Dorine Boumans & Henrik Müller & Stefan Sauer, 2022. "How Media Content Influences Economic Expectations: Evidence from a Global Expert Survey," ifo Working Paper Series 380, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    5. Vegard H. Larsen & Leif Anders Thorsrud, 2018. "Business cycle narratives," Working Paper 2018/3, Norges Bank.
    6. Saskia ter Ellen & Vegard H. Larsen & Leif Anders Thorsrud, 2019. "Narrative monetary policy surprises and the media," Working Papers No 06/2019, Centre for Applied Macro- and Petroleum economics (CAMP), BI Norwegian Business School.
    7. David Ardia & Keven Bluteau & Kris Boudt & Koen Inghelbrecht, 2020. "Climate change concerns and the performance of green versus brown stocks," Working Paper Research 395, National Bank of Belgium.
    8. Lin Chen & Stephanie Houle, 2023. "Turning Words into Numbers: Measuring News Media Coverage of Shortages," Discussion Papers 2023-8, Bank of Canada.
    9. Saadon, Yossi & Schreiber, Ben Z., 2023. "Newspapers tone and the overnight-intraday stock return anomaly," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    10. Allahdadi, Mohammad R. & Fretheim, Torun & Vindedal, Kjetil, 2024. "Value of climate change news: A textual analysis," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    11. Jon Ellingsen & Vegard H. Larsen & Leif Anders Thorsrud, 2022. "News media versus FRED‐MD for macroeconomic forecasting," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 37(1), pages 63-81, January.
    12. Jon Ellingsen & Vegard H. Larsen & Leif Anders Thorsrud, 2020. "News media vs. FRED-MD for macroeconomic forecasting," Working Papers No 08/2020, Centre for Applied Macro- and Petroleum economics (CAMP), BI Norwegian Business School.
    13. Mosi Rosenboim & Yossi Saadon & Ben Z. Schreiber, 2018. "“Much Ado about Nothing”? The Effect of Print Media Tone on Stock Indices," Bank of Israel Working Papers 2018.10, Bank of Israel.
    14. repec:bny:wpaper:0046 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Jon Ellingsen & Vegard H. Larsen & Leif Anders Thorsrud, 2020. "News media vs. FRED-MD for macroeconomic forecasting," Working Paper 2020/14, Norges Bank.
    16. Vegard H ghaug Larsen & Leif Anders Thorsrud, 2018. "Business cycle narratives," Working Papers No 6/2018, Centre for Applied Macro- and Petroleum economics (CAMP), BI Norwegian Business School.

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