“The people demand social justice” a case study on the impact of protests on financial markets

In Israel, the summer of 2011 will be remembered as the summer of social protestation. Steadily increasing food prices that showed no sign of abating motivated people across the nation to voice their discontent in massive weekly protests attended by thousands. As the movement gathered momentum and the impacts of the protests increased, it caught the attention of policy makers, food manufacturers, and food channel retailers. In this article, we show how certain important events during this summer negatively affected the price of food retailers' stocks. We also show that a proper response to the events by retailers targeted by the protestors prevented their stock from falling. We show that a proper response of one retailer converted the goal of protestors and increased its market value.