The Faculty Senate Intellectual Climate Committee invites you to the presentation "Chilling Effects and the Stock Market to the Snowden Revelations," by Mark Rosso, ABM Nasir, and Mohsen Farhadloo. The talk will be held at 12 pm in room 116 of the Farrison-Newton Communications Building. It is free and open to the public.
Presenters
Mark Rosso, CSB, School of Business
ABM Nasir, Economics, School of Business
Abstract
This study analyzes changes in individuals’ internet search behavior and economic variables following Edward Snowden’s revelation of the National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance activities of global internet communications. We refer to the abrupt changes in individual search behavior beginning in June 2013 following Snowden’s revelations as the “Snowden effect.” The “Snowden effect” is a form of chilling effect. Using data from a unique search engine, DuckDuckGo, we show that chilling effects indeed exist. However, further analysis (including the stock prices of the largest cybersecurity companies) demonstrates a muted market response to the revelations, while cybersecurity spending data suggest resulting economic harm in the form of increased opportunity costs of buyers of cybersecurity.
