The Stock Market's Reaction to Unemployment News: Why Bad News Is Usually Good for Stocks

A-Tier
Journal: Journal of Finance
Year: 2005
Volume: 60
Issue: 2
Pages: 649-672

Authors (3)

JOHN H. BOYD (not in RePEc) JIAN HU (not in RePEc) RAVI JAGANNATHAN (Northwestern University)

Score contribution per author:

1.341 = (α=2.01 / 3 authors) × 2.0x A-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

We find that on average, an announcement of rising unemployment is good news for stocks during economic expansions and bad news during economic contractions. Unemployment news bundles three types of primitive information relevant for valuing stocks: information about future interest rates, the equity risk premium, and corporate earnings and dividends. The nature of the information bundle, and hence the relative importance of the three effects, changes over time depending on the state of the economy. For stocks as a group, information about interest rates dominates during expansions and information about future corporate dividends dominates during contractions.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:bla:jfinan:v:60:y:2005:i:2:p:649-672
Journal Field
Finance
Author Count
3
Added to Database
2026-01-25