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Election outcomes and financial market returns in Canada

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  • Chrétien, Stéphane
  • Coggins, Frank

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between federal election outcomes and expected returns and volatilities in the Canadian money, bond, equity and currency markets from 1951 to 2006. There is little evidence that investment opportunities are different in minority versus majority parliaments and only money market returns differ in Conservative versus Liberal governments. The equity market performs better in the late part of the electoral cycle than in the first two years. Furthermore, the Canadian equity investment opportunities are better in Democratic versus Republican administrations and in the late versus early parts of the presidential electoral cycle. The Canadian dollar is also affected by American election outcomes. No apparent variation in risk or expected state of the economy accounts for the differences in returns.

Suggested Citation

  • Chrétien, Stéphane & Coggins, Frank, 2009. "Election outcomes and financial market returns in Canada," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 1-23, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecofin:v:20:y:2009:i:1:p:1-23
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    2. Ortas, E. & Salvador, M. & Moneva, J.M., 2015. "Improved beta modeling and forecasting: An unobserved component approach with conditional heteroscedastic disturbances," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 27-51.
    3. Rangan Gupta & Mark E. Wohar, 2018. "Presidential Cycles in the United States and the Dollar-Pound Exchange Rate: Evidence from over Two Centuries of Data," Working Papers 201874, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
    4. Killins, Robert N. & Ngo, Thanh & Wang, Hongxia, 2022. "Politics and equity markets: Evidence from Canada," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).

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