Stock market response to Covid-19, containment measures and stabilization policies—The case of Europe

Jens Klose and Peter Tillmann

International Economics, 2023, vol. 173, issue C, 29-44

Abstract: Policymakers imposed constraints on public life to contain the Covid-19 pandemic. At the same time, fiscal, monetary and macroprudential policies implemented a large range of expansionary measures to limit the economic consequences of the pandemic and stimulate recovery. In this paper, we assess the response of the equity market as a high-frequency indicator of economic activity to containment and stabilization policies for 29 European economies. We construct indicators of containment and stabilization policies and estimate a range of panel VAR models. The main results are threefold. First, we find that stock markets are highly responsive to containment and stabilization policies. We show that domestic fiscal policy, macroprudential policy as well as monetary policy support the recovery as reflected in the stock market. Second, expansionary fiscal policy conducted at the European level reduces rather raises stock prices. Third, we estimate the model over subsamples and show that the counter-intuitive stock market response to EU policies is driven by the responses in medium- and high-debt countries. These countries’ stock markets are also particularly susceptible to monetary policy announcements.

Keywords: Covid-19; Europe; Stabilization policies; Lockdown-measures; Panel VAR (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E44 E52 E62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Working Paper: Stock Market Response to Covid-19, Containment Measures and Stabilization Policies - The Case of Europe (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:inteco:v:173:y:2023:i:c:p:29-44

DOI: 10.1016/j.inteco.2022.11.004

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