Data underlying the publication: The impact of the Hamas-Israel conflict on the U.S. defense industry stock market return

Creator(s) & Contributor(s):
Jeroen Klomp
Development Economics Group, Wageningen University & Research
Netherlands Defence Academy

Related publication:
The impact of the Hamas-Israel conflict on the U.S. defense industry stock market return. Plos One. 2025

Description:

This dataset facilitates an analysis of the impact of the recent Israel-Hamas conflict on the stock market performance of U.S. defense companies, as measured by the returns of defense-sector Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs). The conflict is quantified using variables such as a binary "attack" indicator, casualty counts, and the intensity of Google search activity related to the war. Additionally, the dataset incorporates a comprehensive set of control variables, including interest rates, exchange rates, oil prices, inflation rates, and factors related to the Ukraine conflict, ensuring a robust framework for evaluating the effects of this geopolitical event.

Keywords:
Armed conflict
Defense companies
investors
Middle East
Market reaction

Spatial coverage:
United states

Temporal coverage:
2023-2024

This dataset contains the following files and variables:

DATASET: ATTACK.TXT
Date		Date
Attack		Dummy variable taking the value one on the day of the Hamas attack on Israel (October 7th, 2023)

DATASET: ETF.TXT
Date		Date
ishare		iShare ETF U.S. Defence and Aerospace
ishare_vol	Daily traded volume of iShare ETF U.S. Defence and Aerospace
invesco		invesco ETF U.S. Defence and Aerospace
invesco_vol	Daily Invesco volume of iShare ETF U.S. Defence and Aerospace
sp		S&P ETF U.S. Defence and Aerospace
sp_vol		Daily S&P volume of iShare ETF U.S. Defence and Aerospace

DATASET: GOOGLE.TXT
Date		Date
google_confl	Daily Google search intensity about the 2023 Israel-Hamas conflict
google_tot	Daily total Google search intensity

DATASET: CASUALTIES.TXT
Date		Date
Casualties	Number of daily casualties (total in Israel and Gaza)

DATASET: INTREST.TXT
Date		Date
tbill_rate	U.S. T-Bill rate
govbond_rat	U.S. 10-year government bond rate

DATASET: S&P500.TXT
Date		Date
S&P500		Daily S&P500 index

DATASET: OILPRICE.TXT	
Date		Date
Oilpr		Daily Brent oil price

DATASET: EXCH.TXT
Month		Month
real_eff_exch	U.S. dollar real effective exchange rate
PPI		U.S. Producer Price Index

DATASET: UKRAINE.TXT
Date		Date
Ukr_supp_dum	Ukraine support dummy taking the value one on days the U.S. granted military support packages to Ukraine.



This dataset is published under the CC BY (Attribution) license.
This license allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator.

