How COVID-19 changed Italian consumers' behavior

We investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic affected people's health-related choices and spending habits in Italy, the first European country to be heavily affected by the pandemic. We collected about 3000 questionnaires in May and June 2020 (that is, during the stabilization phase that followed the country's lockdown), asking questions taken from the “Survey tool and guidance: rapid, simple, flexible behavioural insights on COVID-19” issued by the World Health Organization (WHO), and correlated the responses with respondents' demographic and socioeconomic profiles. A principal component analysis (PCA) shows three main components that we label “Unusual behavior,” “Precautionary spending,” and “Augmented social distancing,” which vary with demographic and socioeconomic characteristics.     

The Eurozone banking sector in the time of COVID-19: Measuring volatility connectedness

This article investigates the volatility connectedness of the Eurozone banking system over the last 15 years (from 2005 to 2020). Applying the Diebold-Yilmaz Connectedness Index model to the daily stock return volatilities of 30 major Eurozone banks, we are able to measure the risk spillover effects and to capture the COVID-19 outbreak's impact on banking stability. The empirical findings show that the 30 banks are highly interconnected. Furthermore, we show the strong impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the volatility dynamics, i.e., on the structure of the Eurozone banking system. Dynamically, we find that volatility connectedness increases during crises, reaching its maximum peak at the time of COVID-19. The analysis points out the critical role of volatility transmission played by large banks, highlighting the “too-big-to-fail” characteristic of this banking system. However, we find that small-medium banks are important actors of contagion, supporting the thesis that the Eurozone banking system is also “too-interconnected to fail.” Finally, we document the heterogeneity effect of the COVID-19 pandemic between Eurozone banking systems. This heterogeneity impact could be a future source of financial instability within the Eurozone.     

The 2020 Pandemic: Economic repercussions and policy responses

This paper analyses the economic and financial repercussions of the 2020 COVID‐19 pandemic. It argues that the pandemic has inflicted serious injuries to the labor force but has not damaged the physical capital stock. Therefore, the resolution policies of this crisis ought to be carefully tailored to supporting structural adjustments to the labor market. The analysis asserts that the impact of the pandemic crisis is exacerbated by the identification gap between the unobserved and the officially reported cases of COVID‐19. The gap increases financial risks, including market‐, credit‐, default‐, and foreign exchange risks.     

Does economic policy uncertainty drive the dynamic spillover among traditional currencies and cryptocurrencies? The role of the COVID-19 pandemic

The paper examines the dynamic spillover among traditional currencies and cryptocurrencies before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and investigates whether economic policy uncertainty (EPU) impacts this spillover. Based on the TVP-VAR approach, we find evidence of spillover effects among currencies, which increased widely during the pandemic. In addition, results suggest that almost all cryptocurrencies remain as “safe-haven” tools against market uncertainty during the COVID-19 period. Moreover, comparative analysis shows that the total connectedness for cryptocurrencies is lower than for traditional currencies during the crisis. Further analysis using quantile regression suggests that EPU exerts an impact on the total and the net spillovers with different degrees across currencies and this impact is affected by the health crisis. Our findings have important policy implications for policymakers, investors, and international traders.     

The financial impact of COVID-19: Evidence from an event study of global hospitality firms

This paper examines the daily abnormal stock price returns of a sample of 154 publicly-traded hospitality firms from 23 different countries representing over $400 billion in combined market capitalization around the time that COVID-19 was first viewed by stock market participants as a major—possibly even existential—threat. The findings of the study suggest that, financially, hotels performed better than restaurants, which themselves performed better than casinos. These findings are consistent with medical recommendations concerning the relative safety of various hospitality-related activities and, therefore, also with the tenets of financial market efficiency in the hospitality sector. Additional findings suggest that hospitality firms with strong balance sheets and income statements characterized by relatively low leverage ratios, high market value (consistent with a “too big to fail” mentality), and higher price/earnings ratios (implying higher relative profitability) all fared better than smaller, weaker firms. Although, in no case, did Bloomberg's proprietary environmental, social, and governance (ESG) variable possess any predictive power, variables reflecting cross-country cultural differences support Huynh’s (2020) finding that “individualism” was an important factor in explaining the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on hospitality firms.     

When bitcoin lost its position: Cryptocurrency uncertainty and the dynamic spillover among cryptocurrencies before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

This paper examines the dynamic spillovers among the major cryptocurrencies under different market conditions and accounts for the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis. We also investigate whether cryptocurrency policy (CCPO) uncertainty and cryptocurrency price (CCPR) uncertainty affect the dynamic connectedness. We adopt the Quantile-VAR approach to capture the left and right tails of the distributions corresponding to return spillovers under different market conditions. Generally, cryptocurrencies show heterogeneous responses to the occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic. We find that the total spillover index (TCI) varies across quantiles and rises widely during extreme market conditions, with a noticeable impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bitcoin lost its position as a dominant “hedger” during the health crisis, while Litecoin became the most dominant “hedger” and/or “safe-haven” asset before and during the pandemic period. Moreover, our analysis shows a significant impact of market uncertainties on total and net connectedness among the five cryptocurrencies. We argue that the COVID-19 pandemic crisis plays a vital role on the relationship between CCPO as well as CCPR and the dynamic connectedness across all market conditions.     

Solvency, Capital Allocation, and Fair Rate of Return in Insurance

In this article, we consider the links between solvency, capital allocation, and fair rate of return in insurance. A method to allocate capital in insurance to lines of business is developed based on an economic definition of solvency and the market value of the insurer balance sheet. Solvency, and its financial impact, is determined by the value of the insolvency exchange option. The allocation of capital is determined using a complete markets’ arbitrage‐free model and, as a result, has desirable properties, such as the allocated capital “adds up” and is consistent with the economic value of the balance sheet assets and liabilities. A single‐period discrete‐state model example is used to illustrate the results. The impact of adding lines of business is briefly considered.     

COVID-19 Pandemic and firm-level dynamics in the USA,UK, Europe,and Japan

This paper examines the impact of the coronavirus pandemic during its first and second waves for the USA, UK, Europe, and Japan. We explore the firm-level dynamics and exhibit the impact of coronavirus events on large and small firms and firms' idiosyncratic risk. We find that the intensity of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic events is not uniform for firms. The Blank Swan events in March 2020 exhibit stronger impact the second wave till April 2021. The second wave analysis reveals the sign of recovery and receding effect of the pandemic. The idiosyncratic analysis shows the positive impact of the coronavirus and stringency measures on the idiosyncratic risk.     

扭曲因子、进口中间品价格与全要素生产率——基于非竞争型投入产出网络结构一般均衡模型事后核算方法

基于BF(2020)模型框架,本文构建了嵌入间接税、成本加成和进口中间投入品的非竞争型投入产出网络结构一般均衡模型,并提出了一种扭曲—调整的索洛余值的事后核算和结构分解新方法,进一步利用中国投入产出表数据、WIOD数据库等编制了与模型匹配的社会核算矩阵,实证测算分析了1997—2017年中国全要素生产率及其结构变化。研究表明:(1) 资本和全要素生产率是中国经济增长的主要源泉,且两者存在明显此消彼长的“跷跷板”特征,劳动的贡献相对较小且贡献率呈下降趋势。(2)纯技术效率变化一直是全要素生产率变化主要贡献部分,但总体上呈下降趋势。2007年是其分水岭,受技术模仿后发优势逐步式微的影响,技术进步速度下滑,但2012年后受创新驱动发展战略的影响,纯技术效率逐步提升。(3)扭曲因子配置效率变化对全要素生产率变化的贡献由正转负,进口中间品贸易条件变化对全要素生产率变化的贡献率由负转正。在建立社会主义市场经济体制和加入WTO大背景下,资源配置效率变化促进了全要素生产率。但2007—2012年,受国际金融危机影响,扭曲因子配置效率出现短期恶化并拉低了全要素生产率。     

Implied Equity Duration: A Measure of Pandemic Shutdown Risk

Implied equity duration was originally developed to analyze the sensitivity of equity prices to discount rate changes. We demonstrate that implied equity duration is also useful for analyzing the sensitivity of equity prices to pandemic shutdowns. Pandemic shutdowns primarily impact short‐term cash flows, thus they have a greater impact on low‐duration equities. We show that implied equity duration has a strong positive relation to U.S. equity returns and analyst forecast revisions during the onset of the 2020 COVID‐19 shutdown. Our analysis also demonstrates that the underperformance of “value” stocks during this period is a rational response to their lower durations.     

Re‐equitizing Corporate Balance Sheets: Choosing Among the Alternatives

Companies are generally reluctant to issue new equity because it can be expensive capital. Among the largest costs of an equity offering are so‐called “market‐impact” costs. To the extent the typically negative market reaction to a stock offering causes an issue to be underpriced, such underpricing dilutes the value of current shareholders. Despite such costs, many companies—particularly financial institutions—are raising equity capital to “delever” balance sheets that have been squeezed by the credit crunch and economic slowdown. And far from transferring value from existing shareholders, these offerings can preserve and even increase the value of highly leveraged companies by shoring up their capital bases and providing the flexibility to get through a difficult period. According to recent studies, announcements of equity offerings by distressed companies have been accompanied by positive stock returns in excess of 5 %. The challenge for CFOs is to determine why and when issuing equity is the value‐maximizing strategy. The kinds of companies that are most likely to benefit from equity offerings are those that score low on credit metrics, have experienced cyclical declines in operating performance, and have growth opportunities as part of their recovery. There are a number of options for raising equity capital, but no set rules for identifying the optimal one. Nevertheless, the author offers a number of suggestions designed to help CFOs make smarter decisions: Communicate clearly to investors the intended uses of the proceeds from the equity offering and how they are expected to create value; Consider judicious cuts to the dividend to preserve capital; Involve current shareholders to minimize dilution, perhaps by considering a rights offering, and strengthen their commitment; Seek out “smart money” such as private equity or SWFs as long‐term investors; Get the offer size right the first time so a second offering can be avoided; and Monetize volatility in uncertain markets by issuing convertible securities.     

Recessions and Health: The Long-Term Health Consequences of Responses to the Coronavirus*

The lockdown measures that were implemented in the spring of 2020 to stop the spread of COVID-19 are having a huge impact on economies in the UK and around the world. In addition to the direct impact of COVID-19 on health, the following recession will have an impact on people's health outcomes. This paper reviews economic literature on the longer-run health impacts of business-cycle fluctuations and recessions. Previous studies show that an economic downturn, which affects people through increased unemployment, lower incomes and increased uncertainty, will have significant consequences on people's health outcomes both in the short and longer term. The health effects caused by these adverse macroeconomic conditions will be complex and will differ across generations, regions and socio-economic groups. Groups that are vulnerable to poor health are likely to be hit hardest even if the crisis hit all individuals equally, and we already see that some groups such as young workers and women are worse hit by the recession than others. Government policies during and after the pandemic will play an important role in determining the eventual health consequences.     

Shareholder Votes and Proxy Advisors: Evidence from Say on Pay

We investigate the economic role of proxy advisors (PAs) in the context of mandatory “say on pay” votes, a novel and complex item requiring significant firm‐specific analysis. PAs are more likely to issue an Against recommendation at firms with poor performance and higher levels of CEO pay and do not appear to follow a “one‐size‐fits‐all” approach. PAs’ recommendations are the key determinant of voting outcome but the sensitivity of shareholder votes to these recommendations varies with the institutional ownership structure, and the rationale behind the recommendation, suggesting that at least some shareholders do not blindly follow these recommendations. More than half of the firms respond to the adverse shareholder vote triggered by a negative recommendation by engaging with investors and making changes to their compensation plan. However, we find no market reaction to the announcement of such changes, even when material enough to result in a favorable recommendation and vote the following year. Our findings suggest that, rather than identifying and promoting superior compensation practices, PAs' key economic role is processing a substantial amount of executive pay information on behalf of institutional investors, hence reducing their cost of making informed voting decisions. Our findings contribute to the literature on shareholder voting and the related policy debate.     

Innovation as recovery strategy for SMEs in emerging economies during the COVID-19 pandemic

The quarantine and disruption of non-essential activities as measure to contain the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected all economies around the World. This has had a deeper impact on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in emerging economies because they have very limited resources and vulnerable supply chain and business-to-business/business-to-clients relationships. In this context, it is expected that after the pandemic many of these enterprises will disappear as the “new normality” will require changes in business and infrastructure management. To reduce this risk, innovation is identified as a key aspect of business recovery in the ongoing and post-COVID-19 pandemic period. This work presents a multidisciplinary methodological approach to guide these enterprises to innovate their products for new markets and making a better use of their limited available resources. As an example of this approach, the research-supported development of a new product for a family-owned SME was performed in a zone with high COVID-19 risk. The results provide insight regarding innovation as a survival tool for SMEs during and after the COVID-19 contingency, and the use of digital resources is identified as the main facilitator for networking and research-based design of innovative products within the “social distance” context.     

INFLATION,SECURITY VALUES,AND RISK PREMIA

The impact of stochastic inflation on the cross-sectional structure of nominal securities yields is examined. The analysis indicates that equilibrium required returns on debt and equity securities are affected differently by inflation and that the “Fisher Effect” is more likely to hold for equity returns than for debt yields. Implications for empirical investigations of portfolio performance and the real interest rate are explored.     

中国资本产出、资本回报与资本流向之谜--基于劳动力价格扭曲视角北大核心

本文通过建立生产部门的要素买方垄断市场均衡模型,利用1996-2016年中国省级面板数据测算中国劳动力价格扭曲程度,并使用固定效应模型(FE)及面板固定效应的工具变量(IV)估计方法加以分析,从劳动力价格扭曲视角解答了中国资本产出、资本回报与资本流向之谜,即中国经济如何在赶超阶段面临资本深化不断加剧和TFP增长乏力的情况下,依靠劳动力价格扭曲实现低资本产出与高资本回报水平共存,从而维持长期高速资本积累以及优质的资本流向结构。实证研究表明:劳动力价格扭曲降低了资本产出效率,但这并不能掩盖由劳动力向资本方转移的垄断利润对资本回报的直接补贴,因此劳动力价格扭曲对中国维持高资本回报水平起到了重要的支撑作用,并通过高资本回报水平实现了地区资本快速积累,劳动力价格扭曲对资本流向的积极作用还体现在抑制资本"脱实向虚"及吸引外资流入。因此,应正视劳动力价格扭曲在赶超阶段的特殊作用,在矫正扭曲的过程中循序渐进,更积极采取措施规避其对资本回报和资本流向可能产生的不利影响。     

Pandemic risk disclosure in integrated reports: after COVID-19 is hindsight 2020?

We examine whether, and to what extent companies disclosed pandemic risk and likely impact as part of their key risks or material matters immediately prior to 2020. The integrated/annual reports of 489 companies from six global regions were examined, finding that despite clear warnings from multiple fronts that highlighted the inevitability and imminence of a global pandemic, only 15.5 percent of companies disclosed anything related to pandemic risk. Of these, 71.1 percent were boilerplate in nature, providing minimal useful information to stakeholders. This study contributes to our understanding of integrated reporting, specifically regarding the adequacy of the disclosure of material risks.     

Bank Lending Standards and Access to Lines of Credit

This paper examines how changes in bank lending standards are related to the availability of bank lines of credit for private and comparable public firms. Overall, we find that access to lines of credit is more contingent on bank lending standards for private than for public firms. The impact of bank lending standards is however asymmetric: while private firms are less likely than public firms to gain access to new lines when credit market conditions are tight, we find no difference between public and private firms in terms of their use or retention of pre‐existing lines. We also find that private firms without lines of credit use more trade credit when bank lending standards are tight, which is suggestive of a supply effect. Overall, the evidence suggests that “credit crunches” are likely to have a disproportionate impact on private firms. However, pre‐existing banking relationships appear to mitigate the impact of these contractions on private firms.     

中国绿色金融政策、融资成本与企业绿色转型——基于央行担保品政策视角

近年来,中国绿色金融政策陆续出台且支持力度不断强化,政策效果受到广泛关注。本文首先将绿色金融政策和绿色转型纳入可持续投资(ESG)资产定价模型,分析绿色金融政策对风险资产均衡收益和企业绿色转型的作用机理。其次基于绿色债券纳入央行合格担保品这一准自然实验,分别从企业融资成本和绿色创新两个角度实证检验绿色转型的政策效果。研究发现:(1)央行担保品类绿色金融政策通过降低绿色债券的信用利差为绿色企业提供融资激励,同时通过提高棕色债券的信用利差给棕色企业的绿色转型带来倒逼促进作用。(2)这一影响在绿色金融改革创新试验区内作用更为显著,但随时间推移逐渐弱化。(3)央行担保品类绿色金融政策通过融资途径显著提升了棕色企业的绿色创新,倒逼棕色企业绿色转型。     

“好”的不确定性、“坏”的不确定性与股票市场定价——基于中国股市高频数据分析

不确定性并不是都是“坏”的,“好”的不确定性也同样存在。本文采用Barndorff-Nielsen et al.(2010)提出的已实现半方差作为股票市场“好”的不确定性和“坏”的不确定性的代理指标,并在此基础上构建了相对符号变差(RSV),分析RSV对中国股市定价的影响。基于2007-2017年中国A股5分钟高频数据的实证研究发现:(1)与理论解释相一致,RSV与股票收益之间呈现负相关关系。无论是基于单变量分组、双变量分组还是公司层面的截面回归,这种影响在经济上和统计上都显著。(2)RSV是独立于已实现偏度的一个重要定价因子,且RSV对股票的定价能力强于已实现偏度的定价能力。(3)RSV对中国股市的影响是状态依存的,相对于经济景气程度高的状态,在经济景气程度低的状态下RSV定价影响更大。(4)基于RSV构建的投资组合的表现明显优于市场超额收益率组合、SMB组合和HML组合的表现。