Corporate Immunity to the COVID-19 Pandemic / Wenzhi Ding, Ross Levine, Chen Lin, Wensi Xie.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ding, Wenzhi.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Levine, Ross.

Lin, Chen.

Xie, Wensi.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w27055.

NBER working paper series no. w27055

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2020.

Summary:

Using data on over 6,000 firms across 56 economies during the first quarter of 2020, we evaluate the connection between corporate characteristics and stock price reactions to COVID-19 cases. We find that the pandemic-induced drop in stock prices was milder among firms with (a) stronger pre-2020 finances (more cash, less debt, and larger profits), (b) less exposure to COVID-19 through global supply chains and customer locations, (c) more CSR activities, and (d) less entrenched executives. Furthermore, the stock prices of firms with greater hedge fund ownership performed worse, and those of firms with larger non-financial corporate ownership performed better. We believe ours is the first paper to assess international, cross-firm stock price reactions to COVID-19 as functions of these pre-shock corporate characteristics.

Notes:

Print version record

April 2020.