Mobility during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Retail Investor Attention

Abstract

Does the impact to mobility due to state-level lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic affect retail investors’ attention in equity markets? Using Google’s mobility, the lockdown dates, and companies’ Wikipedia page views data, we show that stay-at-home duration increases retail attention. The effects are more pronounced for firms with non-lottery-like stocks, high institutional ownership, and those located in states with higher proportions of young population and populations that did not work from home prior to the pandemic. We further find increased trading activity in volume and volatility associated with stay-at-home duration.

Keywords: COVID-19, Investor attention, Mobility, Trading volume, Volatility

JEL Classification: G10, G19, G120