Monetary Policies and Financial Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Event Study Analysis

ABSTRACT

Using an event study design, this paper examines the effects of announcements of financial policies, especially monetary policies, on a measure of financial stress in some advanced and emerging economies during the COVID-19 pandemic period. We construct a daily financial stress index for 15 countries during the period from April 1, 2019 to September 30, 2021 . Our results show that announcing financial policies of any type increased financial stress on the day the policy was announced but the effect faded away rather quickly. Moreover, different types of financial policy announcements had different effects on the financial stress subindices. We also find that each component of financial stress responds to the announcement of financial policies differently and announcements of financial policies affect financial stress in most of the countries in our sample, but to different degrees.