Investor Sentiment, Market Competition, and Financial Crisis: Evidence from the Korean Stock Market

This study examines the role of product market competition in explaining the relationship between investor sentiment and stock returns. We also consider how financial crises, which are exogenous shocks to market participants, affect the associations and interactions among the market competition, investor sentiment, and stock market returns. Our empirical analyses indicate that the positive relationship between sentiment and returns found under high market competition disappears under low market competition. In the crisis period, however, we observe significant relationships between sentiment and returns irrespective of the degree of market competition.