IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/acctfi/v61y2021i3p4741-4756.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

COVID‐19, public attention and the stock market

Author

Listed:
  • Liao Xu
  • Jilong Chen
  • Xuan Zhang
  • Jing Zhao

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) on the Chinese stock market. We show that the COVID‐19 outbreak not only hurts the stock returns but also affects the stock price sensitivity to firm‐specific information. We document heterogeneous effects of the epidemic infection scale and the public attention about the pandemic. The stock market response to firm‐specific information is decelerated (accelerated) by the public attention (infection scale). Moreover, the decreasing (increasing) effect of the public attention (infection scale) on such response is more intensive to positively toned (negatively toned) firm‐specific news articles. Finally, we observe price reversal (momentum) following the public attention (infection scale).

Suggested Citation

  • Liao Xu & Jilong Chen & Xuan Zhang & Jing Zhao, 2021. "COVID‐19, public attention and the stock market," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(3), pages 4741-4756, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:acctfi:v:61:y:2021:i:3:p:4741-4756
    DOI: 10.1111/acfi.12734
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/acfi.12734
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/acfi.12734?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jong-Wha Lee & Warwick J. McKibbin, 2004. "Globalization and Disease: The Case of SARS," Asian Economic Papers, MIT Press, vol. 3(1), pages 113-131.
    2. Niels Joachim Gormsen & Ralph S J Koijen & Nikolai Roussanov, 0. "Coronavirus: Impact on Stock Prices and Growth Expectations," The Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 10(4), pages 574-597.
    3. J Anthony Cookson & Joseph E Engelberg & William Mullins & Hui Chen, 0. "Does Partisanship Shape Investor Beliefs? Evidence from the COVID-19 Pandemic," The Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 10(4), pages 863-893.
    4. David Hirshleifer & Sonya Seongyeon Lim & Siew Hong Teoh, 2009. "Driven to Distraction: Extraneous Events and Underreaction to Earnings News," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(5), pages 2289-2325, October.
    5. Fang, Jianchun & Gozgor, Giray & Lau, Chi-Keung Marco & Lu, Zhou, 2020. "The impact of Baidu Index sentiment on the volatility of China's stock markets," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 32(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dash, Saumya Ranjan & Maitra, Debasish, 2022. "The COVID-19 pandemic uncertainty, investor sentiment, and global equity markets: Evidence from the time-frequency co-movements," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    2. D’Augusta, Carlo & Grossetti, Francesco, 2023. "How did Covid-19 affect investors’ interpretation of earnings news? The role of accounting conservatism," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    3. Li, Sufang & Xu, Qiufan & Lv, Yixue & Yuan, Di, 2022. "Public attention, oil and gold markets during the COVID-19: Evidence from time-frequency analysis," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    4. Boubaker, Sabri & Goodell, John W. & Kumar, Satish & Sureka, Riya, 2023. "COVID-19 and finance scholarship: A systematic and bibliometric analysis," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    5. Hassan, M. Kabir & Hasan, Md. Bokhtiar & Halim, Zairihan Abdul & Maroney, Neal & Rashid, Md. Mamunur, 2022. "Exploring the dynamic spillover of cryptocurrency environmental attention across the commodities, green bonds, and environment-related stocks," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Liao Xu & Jilong Chen & Hao Xu, 2023. "Market sentiment to COVID‐19 and the Chinese stock market," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(S1), pages 1121-1135, April.
    2. Ambrocio, Gene & Hasan, Iftekhar, 2022. "Belief polarization and Covid-19," Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers 10/2022, Bank of Finland.
    3. Lars Peter Hansen, 0. "Repercussions of Pandemics on Markets and Policy," The Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 10(4), pages 569-573.
    4. Xu, Liao & Zhang, Xuan & Zhao, Jing, 2023. "Limited investor attention and biased reactions to information: Evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    5. Manel Youssef & Khaled Mokni & Ahdi Noomen Ajmi, 2021. "Dynamic connectedness between stock markets in the presence of the COVID-19 pandemic: does economic policy uncertainty matter?," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 7(1), pages 1-27, December.
    6. Xu, Liao & Xue, Mingqi & Zhang, Xuan & Zhao, Yang, 2023. "Heterogeneously informed trading and the stock market efficiency during the COVID-19 pandemic," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    7. Ben-Rephael, Azi & Cookson, J. Anthony & izhakian, yehuda, 2022. "Do I Really Want to Hear The News? Public Information Arrival and Investor Beliefs," SocArXiv ud7yw, Center for Open Science.
    8. Wright, Austin L. & Sonin, Konstantin & Driscoll, Jesse & Wilson, Jarnickae, 2020. "Poverty and economic dislocation reduce compliance with COVID-19 shelter-in-place protocols," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 544-554.
    9. Gu, Chen & Kurov, Alexander & Wolfe, Marketa Halova, 2018. "Relief Rallies after FOMC Announcements as a Resolution of Uncertainty," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 1-18.
    10. Phurichai Rungcharoenkitkul, 2021. "Macroeconomic effects of COVID‐19: A mid‐term review," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 439-458, October.
    11. Budi Setiawan & Marwa Ben Abdallah & Maria Fekete-Farkas & Robert Jeyakumar Nathan & Zoltan Zeman, 2021. "GARCH (1,1) Models and Analysis of Stock Market Turmoil during COVID-19 Outbreak in an Emerging and Developed Economy," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-19, December.
    12. Spira, Robin, 2024. "How does ESG rating disagreement influence analyst forecast dispersion?," Junior Management Science (JUMS), Junior Management Science e. V., vol. 9(3), pages 1769-1804.
    13. Turan G. Bali & Robert F. Engle & Yi Tang, 2017. "Dynamic Conditional Beta Is Alive and Well in the Cross Section of Daily Stock Returns," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(11), pages 3760-3779, November.
    14. Sebastian Eichfelder & Mona Lau, 2015. "Capitalization of capital gains taxes: (In)attention and turn-of-the-year returns," FEMM Working Papers 150019, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Faculty of Economics and Management.
    15. Hugo S. Gonçalves & Sérgio Moro, 2023. "On the economic impacts of COVID‐19: A text mining literature analysis," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 375-394, February.
    16. Yun Meng & Christos Pantzalis, 2021. "Lottery-type stocks and corporate strategies at the turn of the month," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 56(3), pages 1027-1055, April.
    17. Bouteska, Ahmed & Sharif, Taimur & Abedin, Mohammad Zoynul, 2023. "COVID-19 and stock returns: Evidence from the Markov switching dependence approach," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    18. Bertrand, Jérémie & Burietz, Aurore, 2023. "(Loan) price and (loan officer) prejudice," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 26-42.
    19. Romain Gauriot Author e-mail: romain.gauriot@nyu.edu & Lionel Page Author e-mail: lionel.page@uts.edu.au, 2021. "How Market Prices React to Information: Evidence from Binary Options Markets," Working Papers 20200058, New York University Abu Dhabi, Department of Social Science, revised Oct 2021.
    20. Umar, Tarik, 2022. "Complexity aversion when SeekingAlpha," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(2).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:acctfi:v:61:y:2021:i:3:p:4741-4756. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaanzea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.