Flight to quality – Gold mining shares versus gold bullion

This paper uses a large sample of gold mining companies traded on four stock markets to identify different types of flight to gold. After extreme financial shocks, we observe that investors flee from stocks including gold mining shares to gold bullion. However, if the financial shock is less extreme, investors only flee from stocks excluding gold mining shares. This highlights that the study of gold mining companies provides important additional information in the context of flight to quality and safe haven effects.