Graduation Year
2021
Date of Submission
5-2021
Document Type
Campus Only Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Economics-Accounting
Reader 1
Andrew Finley
Rights Information
© 2021 Christopher J Hu
Abstract
In recent years, California has enacted the first state-comprehensive privacy legislation in the U.S. to respond to consumer concern over data breaches and unauthorized usage of personal information. In this paper, I research the implications of the California Consumer Privacy Act and California Privacy Rights Act on the short-term and long-term stock returns of U.S. publicly traded digital advertising and data broker firms, the firms most affected by the legislation. Using event study methodologies, I find statistically significant evidence of negative average cumulative abnormal returns within the few days surrounding key legislation dates. The revenue growth rate of advertisers and prior data breaches of data brokers mostly explain the severity of negative short-term stock price reactions for both industries. I also discover that, over a year, advertising firms recover from short-term devaluations while data broker firms do not.
Recommended Citation
Hu, Christopher, "The Effect of Comprehensive Privacy Legislation on Firms’ Stock Returns: Empirical Evidence from California’s CCPA and CPRA" (2021). CMC Senior Theses. 2714.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/2714
This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.
