The research provides evidence of crisis sentimental indexes influencing the returns of Green, Grey and Red securities in the European Union. This study documents investors’ crisis mood and economic uncertainty policy sentiment impacting the environmental classification monthly returns. The monthly crisis factors are based on European countries’ google query volumes from 1/2004 till 12/2019 and are created by following the adjusted Financial and Economic Attitudes Revealed by Search Index (Anastasiou and Drakos, 2021). Additional applied sentiments are General Crisis and Global Economic Policy Uncertainty Indexes. The negative household mood during times of crisis and uncertainty decreases Grey and Red equity price returns, while the effect on Green equity returns is either insignificant or positive, that helps to apply strategic measures to mitigate contagion risks. The implications drawn from these findings hold valuable insights for environmentally conscious investors aiming to (un)balance portfolios and make informed hedging decisions based on the level of investors’ crisis sentiment.
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14 April 2026
Research Article|
April 14 2026
European green, grey, red securities and crisis sentiment Available to Purchase
Ferdinantos Kottas
School of Business,
National University of Ireland Maynooth
, Maynooth, Ireland
; Financial Mathematics and Computational Research Cluster, Dublin, Ireland and Risk Data Scientist, Credit Bureau, Creditinfo, Prague, Czech RepublicCorresponding author Ferdinantos Kottas ferdinantos.kottas.2019@mumail.ie
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Corresponding author Ferdinantos Kottas ferdinantos.kottas.2019@mumail.ie
Received:
December 08 2024
Revision Received:
March 16 2025
Accepted:
March 31 2025
Online ISSN: 2326-6201
Print ISSN: 2326-6198
© 2026 Ferdinantos Kottas
2026
Emerald Publishing Limited
Licensed re-use rights only
Review of Behavioral Economics (2026) 13 (1): 97–137.
Article history
Received:
December 08 2024
Revision Received:
March 16 2025
Accepted:
March 31 2025
Citation
Kottas F (2026), "European green, grey, red securities and crisis sentiment". Review of Behavioral Economics, Vol. 13 No. 1 pp. 97–137, doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/RBE-03-2025-0223
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