IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cpr/ceprdp/11991.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Much Ado About Nothing: Is the Market Affected by Political Bias?

Author

Listed:
  • Massa, Massimo
  • Manconi, Alberto
  • Luo, Mancy

Abstract

We study whether investor behavior is affected by a political bias. We exploit an exogenous change in the market’s perception of political bias in the media: the 2007 acquisition of Dow Jones Newswires (DJNW) by News Corp. We find that investors react to a perceived pro-Republican bias of DJNW: after the acquisition, the prices of “Republican†stocks (stocks of firms making political contributions to the Republican Party) become less sensitive to sentiment in the DJNW. The effect is restricted to DJNW news, and cannot be detected in information channels unaffected by the News Corp. acquisition, such as corporate press releases and earnings surprises. It also appears driven by stocks traded by more profitable investors, short-term investors, and investors more likely to have a Democrat leaning. Finally, we show that in fact the New Corp. acquisition unlikely introduced a political bias in DJNW: there is no significant change in DJNW sentiment for the average Republican (or Democrat) stock after 2007. This suggests that the market tends to counteract a perceived media political bias, and is not always capable to distinguish between real and perceived biases.

Suggested Citation

  • Massa, Massimo & Manconi, Alberto & Luo, Mancy, 2017. "Much Ado About Nothing: Is the Market Affected by Political Bias?," CEPR Discussion Papers 11991, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11991
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cepr.org/publications/DP11991
    Download Restriction: CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org
    ---><---

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

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Claessens, Stijn & Feijen, Erik & Laeven, Luc, 2008. "Political connections and preferential access to finance: The role of campaign contributions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(3), pages 554-580, June.
    2. Joel Peress, 2014. "The Media and the Diffusion of Information in Financial Markets: Evidence from Newspaper Strikes," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(5), pages 2007-2043, October.
    3. Goldstein, Michael A. & Irvine, Paul & Puckett, Andy, 2011. "Purchasing IPOs with Commissions," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(5), pages 1193-1225, October.
    4. Randolph B. Cohen & Joshua D. Coval & Ľuboš Pástor, 2005. "Judging Fund Managers by the Company They Keep," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(3), pages 1057-1096, June.
    5. Stefano DellaVigna & Ethan Kaplan, 2007. "The Fox News Effect: Media Bias and Voting," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 122(3), pages 1187-1234.
    6. Krüger, Philipp, 2015. "Corporate goodness and shareholder wealth," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(2), pages 304-329.
    7. Matthew Gentzkow & Jesse M. Shapiro, 2006. "Media Bias and Reputation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 114(2), pages 280-316, April.
    8. MARA FACCIO & RONALD W. MASULIS & JOHN J. McCONNELL, 2006. "Political Connections and Corporate Bailouts," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(6), pages 2597-2635, December.
    9. Joseph E. Engelberg & Christopher A. Parsons, 2011. "The Causal Impact of Media in Financial Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(1), pages 67-97, February.
    10. Paul C. Tetlock, 2010. "Does Public Financial News Resolve Asymmetric Information?," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(9), pages 3520-3557.
    11. Andy Puckett & Xuemin (Sterling) Yan, 2011. "The Interim Trading Skills of Institutional Investors," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(2), pages 601-633, April.
    12. Chemmanur, Thomas J. & He, Shan & Hu, Gang, 2009. "The role of institutional investors in seasoned equity offerings," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(3), pages 384-411, December.
    13. Malcolm Baker & Richard S. Ruback & Jeffrey Wurgler, 2004. "Behavioral Corporate Finance: A Survey," NBER Working Papers 10863, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Paul C. Tetlock, 2007. "Giving Content to Investor Sentiment: The Role of Media in the Stock Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(3), pages 1139-1168, June.
    15. Amber Anand & Paul Irvine & Andy Puckett & Kumar Venkataraman, 2012. "Performance of Institutional Trading Desks: An Analysis of Persistence in Trading Costs," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(2), pages 557-598.
    16. Fama, Eugene F, 1970. "Efficient Capital Markets: A Review of Theory and Empirical Work," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 25(2), pages 383-417, May.
    17. Mark S. Seasholes & Ning Zhu, 2010. "Individual Investors and Local Bias," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(5), pages 1987-2010, October.
    18. Lily Fang & Joel Peress, 2009. "Media Coverage and the Cross‐section of Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(5), pages 2023-2052, October.
    19. 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.
    20. Umit G. Gurun & Alexander W. Butler, 2012. "Don't Believe the Hype: Local Media Slant, Local Advertising, and Firm Value," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(2), pages 561-598, April.
    21. Raymond Fisman, 2001. "Estimating the Value of Political Connections," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(4), pages 1095-1102, September.
    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. Luo, Mancy, 2017. "Essays in financial intermediation and political economy," Other publications TiSEM 146f40d3-6c89-4c6d-8fea-1, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    2. Ruben Enikolopov & Maria Petrova & Konstantin Sonin, 2018. "Social Media and Corruption," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(1), pages 150-174, January.
    3. Borochin, Paul & Cu, Wei Hua, 2018. "Alternative corporate governance: Domestic media coverage of mergers and acquisitions in China," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 1-25.
    4. Baloria, Vishal P. & Heese, Jonas, 2018. "The effects of media slant on firm behavior," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(1), pages 184-202.
    5. Engelberg, Joseph, 2018. "Discussion of “earnings announcement promotions: A Yahoo Finance field experiment”," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(2), pages 415-418.
    6. Feipeng Zhang & Yun Hong & Yanhui Jiang & Jiayi Yu, 2022. "Impact of national media reporting concerning COVID-19 on stock market in China: empirical evidence from a quantile regression," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(33), pages 3861-3881, July.
    7. Buehlmaier, Matthias M. M. & Zechner, Josef, 2016. "Financial media, price discovery, and merger arbitrage," CFS Working Paper Series 551, Center for Financial Studies (CFS).
    8. Jacobs, Heiko, 2020. "Hype or help? Journalists’ perceptions of mispriced stocks," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 550-565.
    9. Bonsall, Samuel B. & Green, Jeremiah & Muller, Karl A., 2020. "Market uncertainty and the importance of media coverage at earnings announcements," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1).
    10. Betton, Sandra & Davis, Frederick & Walker, Thomas, 2018. "Rumor rationales: The impact of message justification on article credibility," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 271-287.
    11. Goldman, Eitan & Martel, Jordan & Schneemeier, Jan, 2022. "A theory of financial media," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(1), pages 239-258.
    12. Hu, Gang & Jo, Koren M. & Wang, Yi Alex & Xie, Jing, 2018. "Institutional trading and Abel Noser data," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 143-167.
    13. Tsileponis, Nikolaos & Stathopoulos, Konstantinos & Walker, Martin, 2020. "Do corporate press releases drive media coverage?," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(2).
    14. Jia, Ming & Ruan, Hongfei & Zhang, Zhe, 2017. "How rumors fly," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 33-45.
    15. Wu, Yanling & Tian, Gary Gang, 2021. "Public relations expenditure, media tone, and regulatory decisions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    16. Elizabeth Blankespoor & Ed deHaan & Christina Zhu, 2018. "Capital market effects of media synthesis and dissemination: evidence from robo-journalism," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 1-36, March.
    17. Wu, Chen-Hui, 2022. "The informativeness of brokerage reports: Privately-circulated versus publicly-disseminated news," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    18. Campbell, Gareth & Turner, John D. & Walker, Clive B., 2012. "The role of the media in a bubble," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 461-481.
    19. Zhi Da & Borja Larrain & Clemens Sialm & José Tessada, 2016. "Coordinated Noise Trading: Evidence from Pension Fund Reallocations," NBER Working Papers 22161, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Angelos J. Doukas & Jie (Michael) Guo & Herbert Y. T. Lam & Sarah (Hong) Xiao, 2016. "Media Endorsements of New Product Announcements: A New Marketing Strategy," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 22(3), pages 394-426, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Media and financial markets; Political bias;

    JEL classification:

    • G00 - Financial Economics - - General - - - General
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:cpr:ceprdp:11991. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cepr.org .

    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.