Football and the Risk-Return Relationship for a Stock Market: Borsa Istanbul

Abstract

We hypothesize that results of football (soccer) teams affect the risk perception of people. People choose riskier investments after a win and less risky investments after a loss; this leads to higher (lower) returns in the stock market. These hypotheses are tested for the international matches of Turkey's three most popular teams (BeÅŸiktaÅŸ, Fenerbahçe, and Galatasaray). The empirical findings suggests that the teams' wins led to higher asset returns and lower risk aversion on the following business day of the Borsa Istanbul and lower returns and higher risk aversion after a loss or a tie.