Political Uncertainty and Finance: A Survey

Abstract

An emerging stream of literature investigates the impact of political uncertainty on financial markets. In this survey, we review this line of literature from four perspectives, namely, asset prices, corporate policies, financial intermediaries, and economy and households, suggesting that political uncertainty generally increases market friction and as a result changes corporate behavior and adversely affects the economy. At the end of the survey, we discuss a few future directions worth being explored in view of the relationship between political uncertainty and finance.

Keywords: Political uncertainty, Asset prices, Corporate policies, Financial intermediaries, Economy, Households

JEL Classification: G12, G18, G21, G28, G34, G38