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Fresh air eases work—the effect of air quality on individual investor activity

Author

Listed:
  • Steffen Meyer
  • Michaela Pagel

Abstract

This article shows that contemporaneous and lagged air pollution negatively affects the likelihood of German individual investors to log in and trade in their brokerage accounts, using intraday data and controlling for investor-, weather-, traffic-, and market-specific factors. A 1 SD increase in air pollution leads to a 1.3 percent reduction in the probability of logging in, which is larger than the response to a 1 SD increase in sunshine. We argue that changes in air pollution affect productivity in cognitively demanding tasks, such as trading. Our results are robust to macroeconomic productivity shocks, nonlinearities, or measurement error.

Suggested Citation

  • Steffen Meyer & Michaela Pagel, 2024. "Fresh air eases work—the effect of air quality on individual investor activity," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 28(3), pages 1105-1149.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:revfin:v:28:y:2024:i:3:p:1105-1149.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/rof/rfae005
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    air quality; productivity; retail investor; trading behavior;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G5 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance
    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • Q51 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Valuation of Environmental Effects
    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling

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