Investor's Overreaction to an Extreme Event: Evidence from the World Trade Center Terrorist Attack

Abstract

This paper investigates whether investors overreacted to the World Trade Center terrorist attack, using insurers' stock returns. Short-term abnormal return reversals are observed after the 9/11 attack. The reversals may reflect the substantially increased uncertainty surrounding insurer stocks after the event, meaning that the price reactions are efficient risk adjustments. However, after controlling for the change in risk, I still find evidence of price reversals, which I attribute to investor overreaction. To bolster this claim, I provide cross-sectional evidence that reversals are stronger for insurers with higher information asymmetry, which have wider ex-ante bid-ask spreads and smaller numbers of analysts following. This result indicates that the reversals are likely due to behavioral biases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Seoul Journal of Business is the property of Seoul National University, College of Business Administration and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)