Differences in Measuring Market Risk in Four Subsectors of the Digital Economy

Abstract

This paper defends the wisdom of not considering the Digital Economy to be one homogeneous sector. Our hypothesis is that it is best to consider it the result of adding four different subsectors. We test whether indeed the economic and financial performance of a portfolio of listed companies in each of the four subsectors presents relevant differences. We use the value at risk measure to estimate market risk of the four subsectors of the digital economy. The riskiest subsector is Mobile/Internet Contents & Services followed by SW&IT Services and Application Software. On the contrary, the Telecom sector is by far the safest one. These results support the hypothesis that the Digital Economy is not a homogeneous sector.