IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecanpo/v82y2024icp16-31.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impact mechanism and breakthrough path of COVID-19 on enterprise financial distress: Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Leng, Aolin
  • Sun, Yanbing

Abstract

COVID-19 has seriously impacted China's real economy and directly threatened the survival and healthy development of enterprises. Based on the data of Chinese A-share listed enterprises in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2017 to 2021, this paper empirically examines the impact and mechanism of COVID-19 on enterprises financial distress. The findings are as follows: (1) The impact of COVID-19 significantly increases the risk of enterprises financial distress. (2) There are differences in the effect of COVID-19 on the financial situation of enterprises with different characteristics, with significant negative impacts on enterprises in industries such as mining and manufacturing, as well as smaller enterprises and those located in the central and western regions. (3) Digital transformation and government subsidies can alleviate the negative effects of COVID-19 on enterprises financial distress. The paper provides a basis for enterprises to recover from financial difficulties as soon as possible, enhance competitiveness, and realize sustainable development.

Suggested Citation

  • Leng, Aolin & Sun, Yanbing, 2024. "The impact mechanism and breakthrough path of COVID-19 on enterprise financial distress: Evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 16-31.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecanpo:v:82:y:2024:i:c:p:16-31
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eap.2024.03.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0313592624000572
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eap.2024.03.002?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Abinzano, Isabel & Gonzalez-Urteaga, Ana & Muga, Luis & Sanchez, Santiago, 2020. "Performance of default-risk measures: the sample matters," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    2. Xia, Yanchun & Qiao, Zhilin & Xie, Guanghua, 2022. "Corporate resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of digital finance," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    3. Forsythe, Eliza & Kahn, Lisa B. & Lange, Fabian & Wiczer, David, 2020. "Labor demand in the time of COVID-19: Evidence from vacancy postings and UI claims," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    4. Rajkamal Iyer & Asim Ijaz Khwaja & Erzo F. P. Luttmer & Kelly Shue, 2016. "Screening Peers Softly: Inferring the Quality of Small Borrowers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(6), pages 1554-1577, June.
    5. Yang, Song, 2022. "Are private equity and venture capital helping small and medium-sized enterprises during the COVID-19 pandemic? Evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 1-14.
    6. Ye, Fei & Liu, Ke & Li, Lixu & Lai, Kee-Hung & Zhan, Yuanzhu & Kumar, Ajay, 2022. "Digital supply chain management in the COVID-19 crisis: An asset orchestration perspective," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 245(C).
    7. Wang, Yang & Zhang, Yifei, 2020. "Do state subsidies increase corporate environmental spending?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    8. Gregory D. Kane & Uma Velury & Bernadette M. Ruf, 2005. "Employee Relations and the Likelihood of Occurrence of Corporate Financial Distress," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(5-6), pages 1083-1105.
    9. Lalinsky, Tibor & Pál, Rozália, 2022. "Distribution of COVID-19 government support and its consequences for firm liquidity and solvency," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 305-335.
    10. Huang, Kainan & Cheng, Baodong & Chen, Moyu & Sheng, Yu, 2022. "Assessing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on China’s TFP growth: Evidence from region-level data in 2020," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 362-377.
    11. Wang, Zhixuan & Dong, Yanli & Liu, Ailan, 2022. "How does China's stock market react to supply chain disruptions from COVID-19?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    12. Giesecke, Kay & Longstaff, Francis A. & Schaefer, Stephen & Strebulaev, Ilya A., 2014. "Macroeconomic effects of corporate default crisis: A long-term perspective," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(2), pages 297-310.
    13. Pang, Caiji & Wang, Ying, 2020. "Stock pledge, risk of losing control and corporate innovation," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    14. Edward I. Altman, 1968. "Financial Ratios, Discriminant Analysis And The Prediction Of Corporate Bankruptcy," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 23(4), pages 589-609, September.
    15. Richardson, Grant & Lanis, Roman & Taylor, Grantley, 2015. "Financial distress, outside directors and corporate tax aggressiveness spanning the global financial crisis: An empirical analysis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 112-129.
    16. Agnessa O. Inshakova & Anastasia A. Sozinova & Tatiana N. Litvinova, 2021. "Corporate Fight against the COVID-19 Risks Based on Technologies of Industry 4.0 as a New Direction of Social Responsibility," Risks, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-11, November.
    17. García, C. José & Herrero, Begoña, 2021. "Female directors, capital structure, and financial distress," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 592-601.
    18. Zhou, Zhongsheng & Li, Zhuo, 2023. "Corporate digital transformation and trade credit financing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    19. Dabo Guan & Daoping Wang & Stephane Hallegatte & Steven J. Davis & Jingwen Huo & Shuping Li & Yangchun Bai & Tianyang Lei & Qianyu Xue & D’Maris Coffman & Danyang Cheng & Peipei Chen & Xi Liang & Bing, 2020. "Global supply-chain effects of COVID-19 control measures," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 4(6), pages 577-587, June.
    20. Bhattacharjee, Arnab & Han, Jie, 2014. "Financial distress of Chinese firms: Microeconomic, macroeconomic and institutional influences," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 244-262.
    21. Boubaker, Sabri & Cellier, Alexis & Manita, Riadh & Saeed, Asif, 2020. "Does corporate social responsibility reduce financial distress risk?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 835-851.
    22. Julian Oliver Dörr & Georg Licht & Simona Murmann, 2022. "Small firms and the COVID-19 insolvency gap," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(2), pages 887-917, February.
    23. Roundy, Philip T. & Brockman, Beverly K. & Bradshaw, Mike, 2017. "The resilience of entrepreneurial ecosystems," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 8(C), pages 99-104.
    24. Tobias Berg & Valentin Burg & Ana Gombović & Manju Puri, 2020. "On the Rise of FinTechs: Credit Scoring Using Digital Footprints," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 33(7), pages 2845-2897.
    25. Al-Hadi, Ahmed & Al-Abri, Almukhtar, 2022. "Firm-level trade credit responses to COVID-19-induced monetary and fiscal policies: International evidence," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    26. Fuxiu Jiang & Kenneth A Kim, 2020. "Corporate Governance in China: A Survey [The role of boards of directors in corporate governance: a conceptual framework and survey]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 24(4), pages 733-772.
    27. Gregory D. Kane & Uma Velury & Bernadette M. Ruf, 2005. "Employee Relations and the Likelihood of Occurrence of Corporate Financial Distress," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(5‐6), pages 1083-1105, June.
    28. Zhang, Wei, 2015. "R&D investment and distress risk," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 94-114.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Ahsan Habib & Mabel D' Costa & Hedy Jiaying Huang & Md. Borhan Uddin Bhuiyan & Li Sun, 2020. "Determinants and consequences of financial distress: review of the empirical literature," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(S1), pages 1023-1075, April.
    2. ElBannan, Mona A., 2021. "On the prediction of financial distress in emerging markets: What matters more? Empirical evidence from Arab spring countries," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    3. Boubaker, Sabri & Cellier, Alexis & Manita, Riadh & Saeed, Asif, 2020. "Does corporate social responsibility reduce financial distress risk?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 835-851.
    4. Hao, Ying & Zhao, Min & Wei, Zi, 2024. "Can military executives overcome difficulties in corporate value creation? ——Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    5. Xia, Yanchun & Qiao, Zhilin & Xie, Guanghua, 2022. "Corporate resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of digital finance," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    6. Edward I. Altman & Marco Balzano & Alessandro Giannozzi & Stjepan Srhoj, 2023. "Revisiting SME default predictors: The Omega Score," Journal of Small Business Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 61(6), pages 2383-2417, November.
    7. Tarsisius Renald Suganda & Jungmu Kim, 2023. "An Empirical Study on the Relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility and Default Risk: Evidence in Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-20, February.
    8. Florian Habermann & Felix Bernhard Fischer, 2023. "Corporate Social Performance and the Likelihood of Bankruptcy: Evidence from a Period of Economic Upswing," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(1), pages 243-259, January.
    9. Yuan George Shan & Indrit Troshani & Jimin Wang & Lu Zhang, 2023. "Managerial ownership and financial distress: evidence from the Chinese stock market," International Journal of Managerial Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 20(1), pages 192-221, May.
    10. Wang, Changrong & Richardson, Grant & Cao, Yanming, 2024. "Long live the walking dead? Corporate tax avoidance and zombie firms in China," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(3).
    11. Meles, Antonio & Salerno, Dario & Sampagnaro, Gabriele & Verdoliva, Vincenzo & Zhang, Jianing, 2023. "The influence of green innovation on default risk: Evidence from Europe," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 692-710.
    12. Ines Gharbi & Mounira Hamed‐Sidhom & Khaled Hussainey & Janet Ganouati, 2021. "Religiosity and financial distress in U.S. firms," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(3), pages 3902-3915, July.
    13. Champagne, Claudia & Coggins, Frank & Sodjahin, Amos, 2022. "Can extra-financial ratings serve as an indicator of ESG risk?," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    14. Sumin Hu & Qi Zhu & Xia Zhao & Ziyue Xu, 2023. "Digital Finance and Corporate Sustainability Performance: Promoting or Restricting? Evidence from China’s Listed Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-16, June.
    15. Ali Uyar & Simone Pizzi & Fabio Caputo & Cemil Kuzey & Abdullah S. Karaman, 2022. "Do shareholders reward or punish risky firms due to CSR reporting and assurance?," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(5), pages 1596-1620, July.
    16. Zhou, Zhongsheng & Li, Zhuo, 2023. "Corporate digital transformation and trade credit financing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    17. Qianbin Feng & Lexin Zhao & Mingxue Xu, 2023. "Tax Incentives and Maturity Mismatch between Investment and Financing: Evidence from China," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 31(4), pages 1-36, July.
    18. Qi Guo & Lawrence Kryzanowski & Mingyang Li & Jie Zhang, 2021. "Share‐loan pledging and relaxation of share‐repurchase restrictions in China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(5), pages 5925-5964, December.
    19. Kowalewski, Oskar & Pisany, Paweł, 2022. "Banks' consumer lending reaction to fintech and bigtech credit emergence in the context of soft versus hard credit information processing," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    20. Joseph P. Hughes & Julapa Jagtiani & Choon-Geol Moon, 2022. "Consumer lending efficiency: commercial banks versus a fintech lender," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 8(1), pages 1-39, December.

    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:eee:ecanpo:v:82:y:2024:i:c:p:16-31. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/economic-analysis-and-policy .

    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.