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History as Reflected in Capital Markets: The Case of World War II

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2012

Bruno S. Frey
Affiliation:
Bruno S. Frey is Professor and Marcel Kucher is Research Associate at the Institute of Empirical Economic Research, University of Zurich, Blümlisalpstrasse 10, CH-8006 Zürich, Switzerland. Email: [email protected].
Marcel Kucher
Affiliation:
Bruno S. Frey is Professor and Marcel Kucher is Research Associate at the Institute of Empirical Economic Research, University of Zurich, Blümlisalpstrasse 10, CH-8006 Zürich, Switzerland. Email: [email protected].

Extract

Historical events are reflected in asset prices. We analyze movements in the price of bonds issued by five European governments and traded on the Swiss bourse between 1928 and 1948, with special attention to the war years. Some war events that are generally considered crucial are clearly reflected in government bond prices. This holds, in particular, for the official outbreak of the war and changes in national sovereignty. But other events to which historians attach great importance are not reflected in bond prices, most prominently Germany's capitulation in 1945.

Type
Symposium: High Politics and Low Finance
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 2000

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