An update about herding behavior during the 2008 and COVID-19 crises

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The purpose of this article is to analyze the effect of the Covid-19 crisis on herding behavior after it ended, comparing it to the 2008 crisis across a large number of countries. Although the existence of herding behavior in financial markets over crisis periods has already been evaluated by some authors, this evaluation has been limited to only a few markets, and many others remain unevaluated. However, this article explores herding behavior during financial crises, focusing on the 2008 global financial crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic, offering a comparative analysis of both events. Using the CSAD of returns method, a sample composed of 31 stock markets and 195.174 observation days (from 02 January 2000 till 05 May 2023) is analyzed. Herding behavior is found during the entire period, during the different periods of crises, during both high and low volatility periods, and during both high and low trading volume periods.