Measuring Regulatory Effects with Stock Market Evidence: Cable Stocks and the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984

This article introduces the event study method from finance and economics and applies it to the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984. This deregulatory action was believed to have benefited the cable industry. However, results suggest a tempered view of its economic impact. Although cable stock investors did enjoy extraordinary returns following enactment, these results may have had less to do with deregulation than other factors such as coincident overall stock market growth.