The COVID-19 pandemic and consequent economic lockdown have triggered unprecedented economic uncertainty. The financial markets responded instantly, pricing in the uncertainty boom. This paper assesses the impact of anti-COVID social distancing measures on stock markets across the globe. Analysing 60 world economies in a panel vector auto-regression framework, we find that the stringency of social distancing interventions has a negative effect on market returns, but its character is strictly transitory and it fades away within 7 days. The magnitude of the pandemic in terms of recorded disease cases and deaths reveal a very similar pattern, causing a significant, but short-lived decline of stock prices. Our estimates reveal a considerable asymmetry in the identified interrelationships. Less developed markets seem to respond to the economic lockdown more intensively than highly developed economies.
JavaScript is turned off in your web browser. Turn it on to take full advantage of this site, then refresh the page.