Proximity to War: The Stock Market Response to the Russian Invasion of Ukraine
Journal of money credit and banking
Published online on April 08, 2026
Abstract
["Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Volume 58, Issue 3, Page 681-703, April 2026. ", "\nAbstract\nWe identify a “proximity penalty” in the stock market response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine: the closer countries are to Ukraine, the lower their equity returns in a four‐week window around the start of the war. This result holds even at the firm level within Ukraine's neighbors. Trade linkages explain two‐thirds of the proximity penalty. We attribute the remainder—1.1 percentage points in equity returns per 1,000 km of extra distance—to military disaster risk. Evidence from other financial data, geopolitical risk indicators, and aid flow statistics supports the relevance of military tail risk as a spillover channel."]