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The Impact of COVID-19 on the Stock Price of Socially Responsible Enterprises: An Empirical Study in Taiwan Stock Market

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  • Kuo-Jung Lee

    (Department of Commerce Automation and Management, National Pingtung University, Pingtung City 90004, Taiwan)

  • Su-Lien Lu

    (International Bachelor Degree Program in Finance, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Pingtung 912, Taiwan)

Abstract

This study examines the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the Taiwan stock market and investigates whether companies with a commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR) were less affected. This study uses a selection of companies provided by CommonWealth magazine to classify the listed companies in Taiwan as CSR and non-CSR companies. The event study approach is applied to examine the change in the stock prices of CSR companies after the first COVID-19 outbreak in Taiwan. The empirical results indicate that the stock prices of all companies generated significantly negative abnormal returns and negative cumulative abnormal returns after the outbreak. Compared with all companies and with non-CSR companies, CSR companies were less affected by the outbreak; their stock prices were relatively resistant to the fall and they recovered faster. In addition, the cumulative impact of the COVID-19 on the stock prices of CSR companies is smaller than that of non-CSR companies on both short- and long-term bases. However, the stock price performance of non-CSR companies was not weaker than that of CSR companies during times when the impact of the pandemic was lower or during the price recovery phase.

Suggested Citation

  • Kuo-Jung Lee & Su-Lien Lu, 2021. "The Impact of COVID-19 on the Stock Price of Socially Responsible Enterprises: An Empirical Study in Taiwan Stock Market," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-16, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:4:p:1398-:d:492575
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Brzeszczyński, Janusz & Gajdka, Jerzy & Pietraszewski, Piotr & Schabek, Tomasz, 2022. "Has the risk of socially responsible investments (SRI) companies stocks changed in the COVID-19 period? International evidence," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    2. Kayani, Umar Nawaz & Hassan, M. Kabir & Moussa, Faten & Hossain, Gazi Farid, 2023. "Oil in crisis: What can we learn," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 28(C).
    3. Fariha Jahan & Jungmu Kim, 2023. "Does the Shield Effect of CSR Work in Crises? Evidence in Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-18, June.
    4. Chen, Dan & Tang, Yufei & Zhang, Yuan & Sun, Jingyu, 2024. "COVID-19, financing constraints, and performance of listed tourism companies: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    5. Rim El Khoury & Nohade Nasrallah & Khaled Hussainey, 2022. "Exploring the performance of responsible companies in G20 during the COVID-19 outbreak," Post-Print hal-03761427, HAL.
    6. Jiongye Jin & Jianing Zhang, 2023. "The Stock Performance of Green Bond Issuers During COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of China," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 30(1), pages 211-230, March.

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