We study the impact of the 1918 Spanish Flu on U.S. stock prices. Using a new weekly hand collected sample of 131 firms that traded on the NYSE, we examine the impact of the four waves of the flu on stock returns using panel regressions. We find that the second and fourth wave of the pandemic significantly lowered stock returns by 65.5 and 21.6 percent relative to the sample mean return, respectively. The large, but temporary impact of the virus on stock returns can probably be attributed to the fact that, unlike Covid-19, the flu hit the working age population particularly hard.

中文翻译：

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股票回报率和西班牙流感，1918 年至 1920 年

我们研究 1918 年西班牙流感对美国股票价格的影响。我们使用每周新收集的 131 家在 NYSE 交易的公司样本，利用面板回归研究了四波流感对股票回报的影响。我们发现，第二波和第四波疫情使股票回报率相对于样本平均回报率分别显着降低了 65.5% 和 21.6%。该病毒对股票回报产生巨大但暂时的影响可能是因为，与 Covid-19 不同，流感对劳动年龄人口的打击尤其严重。