Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.1080/1331677X.2021.1929374
Government responses to COVID-19 and industry stock returns
Elie Bouri
Muhammad Abubakr Naeem
Safwan Mohd Nor
Imen Mbarki
Tareq Saeed
Abstract
Governments around the world have responded to the COVID-19
outbreak with a mix of policies. The strictest responses of the
New Zealand government are notable, given their abilities to contain and limit the spread of the virus. However, their impacts on
stock returns remain unclear. This paper investigates the impact
of three policies, namely lockdown, the stimulus package, and the
travel ban, on the returns of 14 New Zealand industry stock indices. Using daily data from 1 January 2019 to 25 August 2020, evidence points to a heightened level of integration among the
various industry stock indices during the early stages of the pandemic. Only lockdown has had a positive impact on aggregate
stock returns, suggesting its ability to raise investors’ confidence
in the overall stock market. At the industry level, the impact of
the three response policies is generally positive but heterogeneous across industry stock indices. Notably, none of the three
adopted policies significantly impact technology, healthcare, and
real estate returns.
Keywords
Government response; COVID-19 outbreak; New Zealand; industry stock returns; equi-correlation
Hrčak ID:
302246
URI
Publication date:
31.3.2023.
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