Seeing is believing: the impact of corporate scandal documentaries on stock prices

Abstract We investigate the behavior of stocks after the launch of Netflix’s scandal documentaries on the corresponding firms. We document a significant fall in prices after the release of the documentaries that is not reversed in the weeks following their launch, resulting in an average cumulative abnormal return of −15.34% three months after the event day. We also find a significant increase in stocks’ traded volumes and Google Search Volumes for the corresponding firms after the release of the documentaries. Moreover, we report a significant contemporaneous and lagged relation between stocks’ returns and traded volumes in the event window that is not seen before the release day. Taken together, these results suggest that the fall in stock prices is driven by investor attention. Our findings have significant implications for corporate misconduct and how market participants become informed and consequently price this behavior.