ACLE Law & Finance Seminar with Saumitra Jha (Stanford Graduate School of Business)
Valuing Peace: The Effects of Financial Market Exposure on Votes and Political Attitudes
- Date
- 6 April 2017
- Time
- 13:00 -14:30
- Location
- Roeterseilandcampus - gebouw M
- Room
- Amsterdam Business School - Room M3.02 (third floor)
Introduction:*
Financial markets expose individuals to the broader economy. Does participation in financial markets also lead citizens to re-evaluate the costs of conflict, their views on politics and even their voting decisions? Prior to the 2015 Israeli elections, we randomly assigned financial assets from Israeli and Palestinian companies to likely voters and gave them incentives to actively trade for up to seven weeks. Exposure to financial markets systematically shifted vote choices and increased support for peace initiatives. We delineate the mechanisms for this change and show that financial market exposure led to learning and reevaluation of the economic costs of conflict.
* Coauthored by Moses Shayo (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Economics)
