The impact and role of COVID-19 uncertainty: A global industry analysis
Jan Jakub Szczygielski,
Ailie Charteris,
Princess Rutendo Bwanya and
Janusz Brzeszczynski
International Review of Financial Analysis, 2022, vol. 80, issue C
Abstract:
The novel 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) has resulted in uncertainty that permeates every aspect of life and business. In this study we undertake a comprehensive analysis of the impact of COVID-19 related uncertainty on global industry returns and volatility using a sample of 68 global industries and Google Trends search data to measure COVID-19 related uncertainty. The results indicate that COVID-19 related uncertainty negatively impacts returns on all industries and generally leads to higher volatility. We interpret these findings as uncertainty related to the future financial performance of firms and emerging opportunities for some industries. Certain industries are more resilient than others and increased uncertainty is not only necessarily associated with industries that experienced the largest negative returns. We also find that new factors emerged in the return generating process during the COVID-19 period. We show that despite an uncertain climate, some industries performed well, yielding positive cumulative abnormal returns that at times are greater than during the pre-COVID-19 period. The implications of our findings for investors are discussed.
Keywords: COVID-19; pandemic; returns; volatility; industries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C22 C58 D53 G12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)
Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1057521921001708
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:finana:v:80:y:2022:i:c:s1057521921001708
DOI: 10.1016/j.irfa.2021.101837
Access Statistics for this article
International Review of Financial Analysis is currently edited by B.M. Lucey
More articles in International Review of Financial Analysis from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().