Stock Markets | Econofact

What to Make of Stock Market Volatility? (VIDEO)

By Megan Greene and Michael Klein·August 28, 2019
Harvard Kennedy School, and The Fletcher School, Tufts University

This conversation was recorded on August 1, 2019.

Stock market volatility—big swings in the prices of stocks—had actually been relatively low in the period of recovery from the financial crisis through 2017. However, that trend has been changing of late, with several incidences of volatility marked by ‘short,

What Problems (If Any) Arise From Stock Buybacks?

By Daniel Bergstresser·April 29, 2019
Brandeis University

The Issue:

Stock buybacks by the firms included in the S&P 500 index have increased recently, rising from an average of about $135 billion per quarter over the previous three years to over $200 billion per quarter: $800 billion in the first eleven months of 2018 with announced buybacks bringing the figure to

What Does the Stock Market Tell us About Politics?

By Raymond Fisman and Eric Zitzewitz·May 14, 2018
Boston University and Dartmouth College

The Issue:

Politicians often take credit for a rise in the stock market, which is viewed as an indicator of a robust economy. But politics has a much more limited effect on the overall economy than on particular industries, or even particular companies, whose fortunes rise or fall with changes in tax, trade or ...
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Putting the Recent Swings in Stock Market Indexes into Context

By Daniel Bergstresser·February 8, 2018
Brandeis University

The Issue:

The volatility in the stock market in the first week of February 2018 stands in stark contrast to unusually low volatility throughout 2017. The past year was the first one ever that the Standard and Poor’s 500-stock index did not experience any decline greater than 3 percent. The past week, however, ...
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