Impact of Pandemic Outbreak and Targeted Required Reserve Ratio Cut Policy on Stock Return Rate: Evidence from China

This study analyzed the impact of COVID-19 outbreak and targeted required reserve ratio cut policy on stock returns of Chinese listed companies. This paper uses the data of 3,449 A-share listed companies from February 3, 2020 to December 31, 2020 for research, the empirical results showed that stock prices of private enterprises with stronger debt-paying ability and looser financing constraints, and state-owned enterprises with less supply chain credit risks performed better, in the central and western regions, enterprises with stronger solvency and looser financing constraints have better stock price performance during the early stages of pandemic. After the implementation of the targeted RRR cut policy, the stock prices of enterprises with poor solvency, private enterprises, and enterprises in central and western regions with strong financing constraints, state-owned enterprises, and enterprises in eastern region with high credit risks all showed significant reversals, and the stock prices reflected the effect of the targeted RRR cut policy in the short and medium term. Over time, the pandemic has been controlled, and the resumption of work and production has freed most enterprises from financial difficulties. However, due to sporadic outbreaks, large private enterprises and eastern enterprises with strong risk resistance and loose financing constraints enjoy better stock price performance. This study is helpful for enterprises to understand the value of financial flexibility and solvency and provides a reference for enterprises to make financial decisions: how to balance the benefits and costs of solvency. © Tian Wang, Fang Fang and Linhao Zheng, 2023.

Fintech in the Face of the Economic Crisis Caused by COVID-19

This paper aims to analyze the opportunities of fintech in the face of the economic crisis generated by COVID-19, which has had a great impact on companies and on the lives of people who have been forced to reinvent their work, consumption habits and their interaction with the environment in order to sustain themselves in an increasingly competitive market that affect their lifestyle. It is es-sential to bear in mind that the traditional system and the government have made efforts to main-tain the country's economic stability, but the results have not been very satisfactory. Therefore, a triangular-type exploratory research is carried out from the qualitative and quantitative aspects, through the application of information collection instruments, identifying financial, organizational and strategic of the SMEs in the city of Bogota, that reported their financial statements with cutoff to December 2021 to the Superintendency of Corporations. Finally, it is evident the opportunity for fintech to do disruptive technological innovation for the development of financial products through connectivity from mobile devices for personal use that allow monitoring, electronic commerce, transaction systems, financing, decision-making models and optimization of financial processes at a low cost, which makes it possible to open a range of multiple opportunities for SMEs that seek greater participation and competitiveness where they can offer their products and services in an efficient, agile, comfortable and reliable way.

COVID-19 Media Chatter and Macroeconomic Reflectors on Black Swan: A Spanish and Indian Stock Markets Comparison

Predictive analytics of financial markets in developed and emerging economies during the COVID-19 regime is undeniably challenging due to unavoidable uncertainty and the profound proliferation of negative news on different platforms. Tracking the media echo is crucial to explaining and anticipating the abrupt fluctuations in financial markets. The present research attempts to propound a robust framework capable of channeling macroeconomic reflectors and essential media chatter-linked variables to draw precise forecasts of future figures for Spanish and Indian stock markets. The predictive structure combines Isometric Mapping (ISOMAP), which is a non-linear feature transformation tool, and Gradient Boosting Regression (GBR), which is an ensemble machine learning technique to perform predictive modelling. The Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) is used to interpret the black-box type predictive model to infer meaningful insights. The overall results duly justify the incorporation of local and global media chatter indices in explaining the dynamics of respective financial markets. The findings imply marginally better predictability of Indian stock markets than their Spanish counterparts. The current work strives to compare and contrast the reaction of developed and developing financial markets during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been argued to share a close resemblance to the Black Swan event when applying a robust research framework. The insights linked to the dependence of stock markets on macroeconomic indicators can be leveraged for policy formulations for augmenting household finance. © 2023 by the authors.

Pharmacokinetic evaluation of drug-drug interactions in the treatment of COVID-19.

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic, which started in Wuhan, China and affected the whole world, still represents a unique global challenge with its contagiousness and lethality. The symptoms of COVID-19 patients may differ depending on the severity of the disease. According to the report published by the Ministry of Health Coronavirus Research Advisory Board on the diagnosis, treatment and control of COVID-19, drug combination therapy (hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir / ritonavir and favipiravir) is recommended by health authorities. Drug-drug interaction is a possible situation as a result of simultaneous use of these drugs, which are metabolized by cytochrome P 450 enzymes (CYP), which are mostly found in the liver, with some other drugs. In this review, we aimed to show the pharmacokinetic drug-drug interactions of the drugs used in the treatment of COVID-19, especially by indicating the metabolism pathways. Result and Discussion: The COVID-19 pandemic adversely affects social life, economic and financial markets worldwide. Appropriate treatment protocols are of great importance but taking drug-drug interactions into account in treatment practices prevents unwanted results in patient treatment.Copyright © 2021 University of Ankara. All rights reserved.

The Future of Finance and Fintech: Visualizing the Opportunities for Fintech in the MENA Region

The study tries to provide visualization of the Fintech ecosystem in the MENA region. The global financial market is undergoing unprecedented change with the COVID-19 pandemic and the evolution of disruptive technology called Fintech. Fintech has completely changed the landscape of the financial sphere across the globe. One of the key outcomes of the MENA region is establishing a friendly, permissible, and governing atmosphere for Fintech startups and matured development proposals through progress-thinking programs. An essential part of this approach is establishing a facilitating environment adept of inviting and encouraging foreign firms contained by their corresponding countries. The study concludes that the information transfer likely to result from this will push the advancement of a lively, regional Fintech ecosystem. Most noticeably, counties like Bahrain and the UAE are initially on in their attempts to build into the Fintech hub in the area. Most of the countries in the MENA region are adopting and considering the outcome of Fintech and putting their efforts to establish a sustainable Fintech ecosystem. The study is expected to help the financial institutions, investors, and regulators in formulating the right strategy in embracing this disruption to get the maximum benefit out of it. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

Fintech in the Face of the Economic Crisis Caused by COVID-19

This paper aims to analyze the opportunities of fintech in the face of the economic crisis generated by COVID-19, which has had a great impact on companies and on the lives of people who have been forced to reinvent their work, consumption habits and their interaction with the environment in order to sustain themselves in an increasingly competitive market that affect their lifestyle. It is es-sential to bear in mind that the traditional system and the government have made efforts to main-tain the country's economic stability, but the results have not been very satisfactory. Therefore, a triangular-type exploratory research is carried out from the qualitative and quantitative aspects, through the application of information collection instruments, identifying financial, organizational and strategic of the SMEs in the city of Bogota, that reported their financial statements with cutoff to December 2021 to the Superintendency of Corporations. Finally, it is evident the opportunity for fintech to do disruptive technological innovation for the development of financial products through connectivity from mobile devices for personal use that allow monitoring, electronic commerce, transaction systems, financing, decision-making models and optimization of financial processes at a low cost, which makes it possible to open a range of multiple opportunities for SMEs that seek greater participation and competitiveness where they can offer their products and services in an efficient, agile, comfortable and reliable way.

Sustainability and stability: Will ESG investment reduce the return and volatility spillover effects across the Chinese financial market?

This study provides a preliminary investigation of the relationship between sustainability and stability by investigating the impact of ESG investment on the return and volatility spillover effects in the major Chinese financial markets, including the stock, bond, interbank, and foreign exchange markets. We adopted both the TVP-VAR and DY methods to calculate the time-varying total, directional, and pairwise spillover indices. We examined the impact of ESG investment on financial market stability by comparing the spillover effects when ESG investment, represented by the ESG stock index, is considered with those without special consideration on the ESG investment, represented by the general stock index. The results show that when the ESG stock index replaces the general stock index, the total, directional, and pairwise spillover effects in the Chinese financial market generally decrease. Meanwhile, we find that although the overall Chinese financial market spillover index is around 13%, it is occasionally quite volatile. In particular, the markets were hugely uncertain in 2013 and 2020 due to the disequilibrium of supply and demand conditions in the money market and the considerable shocks created by the COVID-19 pandemic. We support the idea that, while the Chinese government develops its green finance, for instance, by advocating for ESG investment, it simultaneously builds a more stabilized financial market. In other words, sustainability and stability are positively correlated and can be achieved together. The reason for this is that ESG investment supports a long-run investment strategy by reducing excessive short-run speculation activities in the Chinese stock market, which accounts for the volatile property of the market since it was launched.

The systemic risk of US oil and natural gas companies

We analyse the evolution of the systemic risk impact of oil and natural gas companies since 2000. This period is characterised by several events that affected energy source markets: the real effect of the global financial crisis, the explosion of shale production and the diffusion of the Covid-19 pandemic. The price of oil and natural gas showed extreme swings, impacting companies' financial situations, which, accompanied by technological developments in shale production, had an impact on the debt issuance and on the overall risk level of the oil and natural gas sector. By studying the systemic impact of oil and natural gas companies on risk in the financial market, measured by the ΔCoVaR, we observe that in the most recent decade, their role is sensibly increasing compared to 2000–2010, even accounting for the possible effect associated with the increase in companies' sizes. In addition, our results show evidence of a decreasing relevance of traditional drivers of systemic risk, suggesting that additional factors might be present. Finally, when focusing on the impact of Covid-19, we document its relevant role in fuelling the increase in the oil and natural gas companies' systemic impact. © 2023 The Authors

Shift contagion and minimum causal intensity portfolio during the COVID-19 and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Using the TYDL causality test, this paper attempts (i) to investigate the existence of shift contagion among a large spectrum of financial markets during recent stress and stress-free periods and (ii) to propose a new approach of portfolio management based on the minimization of the causal intensity. During the COVID-19 crisis period, the shift contagion analysis not only reveal a tripling of the causal links between the markets studied, but also a change in the causal structure. Beyond the initial impact of the COVID-19 crisis on financial markets, policy interventions seem to have helped in reassuring market participants that the further spread of financial stress would be mitigated. However, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, and the high degree of uncertainty it entailed, has again exacerbated the interdependencies between financial markets. In terms of portfolio analysis, our minimum-causal-intensity approach records a lower (respectively higher) reward-to-volatility ratio than the Markowitz (1952 & 1959) minimum-variance traditional approach during the pre-COVID-19 (respectively pre-war) period. On the other hand, both approaches, the one we propose in this paper and the minimum-variance approach, record negative reward-to-volatility ratios during crisis periods.

An Investigation into COVID-19 Pandemic in India

Pandemic of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) has put tremendous pressure on the people of different localities, states and countries. In a short span of time, it spread all over the world. This has affected the social life of people by enforcing them to stay at home and keep social distance. Many developed countries were also not able to handle the situation even though all resources were available with them. This chapter discussed about the symptoms of COVID-19, precautionary measures, ways of spreading the Coronavirus, and technologies used to fight COVID-19. This also discussed about the impact of COVID-19 on business, financial market, supply side, demand side and international trade on Indian economy. © 2022 Scrivener Publishing LLC.

Redefining investors' goals in the post–normal world

PurposeThe purpose of the article is to show the changing behavior of investors in the post-pandemic period, the continued development of "emotional communities” in the financial market, as well as the factors contributing to their formation and the role of such communities in the elaboration of investors' decisions.Design/methodology/approachThe research includes an analysis of the popularity of various terms searched in the US segment of Google in the financial category from 2004 to 2022, their correlation with financial market indicators and theoretical observations around these data.FindingsThe results obtained by the author allow him to draw the following conclusions: (1) the change in investors' behavior indicates the formation of the new distributed community-centric model of the financial market;(2) the main distinguishing feature of the behavior of many retail investors is gamification;(3) the networking of investors contributes to a significant change in their priorities in the elaboration of investment decisions;(4) the fundamental indicators of the financial market play an ever decreasing role in the decision-making of individual investors.Originality/valueTo the best of the author's knowledge, the formation of emotional communities of investors and their role in the elaboration of mass investor decisions is not widely covered in the literature. The paper develops a framework for further studies on the role of emotional communities in the financial market and in changing behavior of retail investors.

A business retrieval model using scenario planning and analytics for life during and after the pandemic crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic crisis has fundamentally changed the way we live and work forever. The business sector is forecasting and formulating different scenarios associated with the impact of the pandemic on its employees, customers, and suppliers. Various business retrieval models are under construction to cope with life after the COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis. However, the proposed plans and scenarios are static and cannot address the dynamic pandemic changes worldwide. They also have not considered the peripheral in-between scenarios to propel the shifting paradigm of businesses from the existing condition to the new one. Furthermore, the scenario drivers in the current studies are generally centered on the economic aspects of the pandemic with little attention to the social facets. This study aims to fill this gap by proposing scenario planning and analytics to study the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on large-scale information technology-led Companies. The primary and peripheral scenarios are constructed based on a balanced set of business continuity and employee health drivers. Practical action plans are formulated for each scenario to devise plausible responses. Finally, a damage management framework is developed to cope with the mental disorders of the employees amid the disease.Copyright © 2021 The Author(s)

Dynamic spillover between traditional energy markets and emerging green markets: Implications for sustainable development

This study employs the time-varying vector parameter autoregression model and Diebold-Yilmaz (2012, 2014) spillover approach to explore the static, net, dynamic and directional spillover effects between China's traditional energy and emerging green markets and the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on spillover effects. Spillover networks are constructed to observe structural changes in the directional spillover of each target financial market before and after the pandemic's outbreak. Changes in hedging indicators of portfolios composed of two types of markets before and after the outbreak of COVID-19 are compared to provide directional guidance for investors to choose portfolios in the post-pandemic era. We found that the outbreak of the pandemic had a considerable impact on the volatility of various spillover effects of the studied markets. The total spillover level of the system increased rapidly by 18% in the early stages of the pandemic. Green bond was the largest net recipient of volatility spillovers in the whole system, followed by crude oil, while new energy was the largest net contributor of volatility spillovers in the whole system, followed by clean energy. After the outbreak, the hedging effectiveness of portfolios with long positions in traditional energy markets and short positions in emerging green markets improved significantly. In particular, a portfolio with long positions in the crude oil market and short positions in the green bond market is the best risk-hedging portfolio. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd

Perception of cryptocurrencies by young financial market participants on the example of Poland and Germany

The phenomenon of cryptocurrencies still requires systematic and in-depth scientific research, because the literature lacks a concentrate and systematic analysis on issue of private, decentralized digital money (cryptocurrencies) in relation to the future of traditional money, as well as the stability of the financial system. Moreover, the is lack of research based on the opinions of participants of the financial system, which includes users – current and potential – as subjects relevant to the future of the financial system, based on the historically well-known principle of universal acceptance and trust in traditional monetary system. In particular, comparative and international research has received limited attention. In response to the identified research gap, this article refers to the results of research on the perception of cryptocurrencies by young financial market participants. We try to answer to the following research questions: 1) are there international differences in perceptions and attitudes toward the traditional monetary system and cryptocurrencies? 2) are cryptocurrencies constructed on the basis of blockchain a valid alternative to current fiat money? 3) do cryptocurrencies have characteristics that make them successors to fiat money? Our work is based on the research material collected during surveys conducted before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic – in December 2019 and January 2020 – in Germany and Poland. The survey was conducted among 281 respondents – 143 from Germany and 128 from Poland. They were students of economics and finance majors of studies. The survey was conducted in the form of an auditorium questionnaire. The paper questionnaire used in the survey consisted of 26 questions related to virtual money and 5 questions of socio-demographic characteristics. In addition, the article used statistical methods – correlation and variance analysis – to characterize the distributions of responses and the relationships between questions. Our findings lead to the conclusion that there are significant differences in perception, the traditional monetary system, and cryptocurrencies due to a variety of factors, which include the level of development of the economy, the innovation of financial markets, historical warranty and being their derivative the so-called collective consciousness (mentality). The obtained research results can be a starting point for further in-depth analysis of the studied phenomenon at the international level, not only in the sphere of economics and finance, but also behavioral finance, sociology and psychology. © 2022 Narodowy Bank Polski. All rights reserved.

Pharmacokinetic evaluation of drug-drug interactions in the treatment of COVID-19.

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic, which started in Wuhan, China and affected the whole world, still represents a unique global challenge with its contagiousness and lethality. The symptoms of COVID-19 patients may differ depending on the severity of the disease. According to the report published by the Ministry of Health Coronavirus Research Advisory Board on the diagnosis, treatment and control of COVID-19, drug combination therapy (hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir / ritonavir and favipiravir) is recommended by health authorities. Drug-drug interaction is a possible situation as a result of simultaneous use of these drugs, which are metabolized by cytochrome P 450 enzymes (CYP), which are mostly found in the liver, with some other drugs. In this review, we aimed to show the pharmacokinetic drug-drug interactions of the drugs used in the treatment of COVID-19, especially by indicating the metabolism pathways. Result and Discussion: The COVID-19 pandemic adversely affects social life, economic and financial markets worldwide. Appropriate treatment protocols are of great importance but taking drug-drug interactions into account in treatment practices prevents unwanted results in patient treatment.Copyright © 2021 University of Ankara. All rights reserved.

Pharmacokinetic evaluation of drug-drug interactions in the treatment of COVID-19.

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic, which started in Wuhan, China and affected the whole world, still represents a unique global challenge with its contagiousness and lethality. The symptoms of COVID-19 patients may differ depending on the severity of the disease. According to the report published by the Ministry of Health Coronavirus Research Advisory Board on the diagnosis, treatment and control of COVID-19, drug combination therapy (hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir / ritonavir and favipiravir) is recommended by health authorities. Drug-drug interaction is a possible situation as a result of simultaneous use of these drugs, which are metabolized by cytochrome P 450 enzymes (CYP), which are mostly found in the liver, with some other drugs. In this review, we aimed to show the pharmacokinetic drug-drug interactions of the drugs used in the treatment of COVID-19, especially by indicating the metabolism pathways. Result and Discussion: The COVID-19 pandemic adversely affects social life, economic and financial markets worldwide. Appropriate treatment protocols are of great importance but taking drug-drug interactions into account in treatment practices prevents unwanted results in patient treatment.Copyright © 2021 University of Ankara. All rights reserved.

COVID-19 Vaccination and Financial Frictions

We study the COVID-19 epidemic in emerging markets that face financial frictions and its mitigation through social distancing and vaccination. We find that restricted vaccine availability in emerging markets, as captured by limited quantities and high prices, renders the pandemic exceptionally costly in these countries, compared with economies without financial frictions. Improved access to financial markets enables a better response to the delay in vaccine supplies, as it supports more stringent social distancing measures before wider vaccine availability. We show that financial assistance programs to such financially constrained countries can increase vaccinations and lower fatalities, at no present-value cost to the international community.

Impacts and Consequences of COVID-19 Epidemic on Global Economy

Background: Since Coronavirus (COVID-19) is increasing its influence from China and spreading its reservoir to neighboring areas and other nations, expanded national and foreign efforts are being made to control this epidemic. Method(s): This review incorporated the information depicting the effect of COVID-19 on different industrial sectors. Result(s): According to the World Health Organization, the outbreak was first identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019 and has affected more than 17660523 people (confirmed cases) worldwide, and more than 680894 people have died. In addition to its alarming impact on human health, the novel strain of COVID-19 has dramatically slowed down not just the Chinese economy but also the world economy. The increased uncertainty has led to financial market volatility. Conclusion(s): Some firm decisions and policies must be framed out to stabilize the world economy so that threatening socio-economic impact cannot be sustained for a longer period of time for the welfare of humankind.Copyright © 2021 Bentham Science Publishers.

Does stock market development and COVID-19 pandemic lead to financial crisis: the case of largest Islamic stock exchange market?

This research investigates the short- and long-term effect of COVID-19 pandemic period and the largest Islamic stock market development (SMD) in term of size and market activity (turnover) on financial crises (FCs) indicator and identifies the Granger–causality relationship exist between them. We apply an autoregressive distributed lag technique analysis method in estimating short- and long-run models of this relationship, using 34 monthly observations, from 2018M1 to 2020M10 Islamic stock market of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The short-term result implies that the FC indicator had significant positively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the long-run model result shows that market size indicator leads to a major FC, while market trade value indicator has negative impact on FC indicator in KSA Tadawul market. In addition, the results show that the only market capital indicator Granger–causes FCs. We concluded that the Saudi policymakers should make new regulations to avoid the negative effect of FC, in order for the growth of its stock market size and trade, for the stability of financial economic in Saudi Arabia. They should add more support to stock market trading to eliminate the potential threat of FC. We believe this is the first empirical study that investigates the short- and long-term effect of SMD, in terms of size and activity development on the FCs volatility in largest Islamic stock exchange market without ignoring the potential effect of COVID-19 pandemic. Also, this research is novel in terms of studying a market that was previously closed to outsiders and has implemented various financial sector reforms in recent years. © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Financial market sentiment and stock return during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Using 1,287,932 pieces of textual data from news media, we measure the financial market sentiment worldwide. We conduct the first international study of the effect of the financial market sentiment on stock return during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results show that the intensification of the epidemic adversely affects the stock market, but the increasing financial market sentiment increases the stock market return, even during the worst of the pandemic. Our results remain robust using alternative proxies. Additional analysis suggests that negative sentiment has a more significant impact on stock market returns than positive sentiment. Taken together, our findings confirm that negative financial market sentiment amplifies the impact of the crisis on the stock market, and positive financial market sentiment can help mitigate the losses caused by the shock.