Dong, HangGil-Bazo, JavierRatiu, Raluca Valeria2025-03-182025-03-182021Dong H, Gil-Bazo J, Ratiu RV. Information demand during the COVID-19 pandemic. J Account Public Policy. 2021 Oct-Nov;40(6):106917. DOI: 10.1016/j.jaccpubpol.2021.1069170278-4254http://hdl.handle.net/10230/69955We investigate the demand for financial information during the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using Google search data for individual stocks, we show that the Abnormal Google Search Volume Index declined significantly between March and June of 2020. We find a similar effect around earnings announcements dates, which confirms that the demand for financial information by retail investors declined during the pandemic. Our results are indicative of potentially important consequences for information diffusion, price discovery and market efficiency under extreme uncertainty. We discuss possible explanations for these results.application/pdfeng© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaccpubpol.2021.106917Information demandGoogle searchCOVID-19info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess