Death and contagious infectious diseases: Impact of the COVID-19 virus on stock market returns

This study investigates whether contagious infectious diseases affect stock market outcomes. As a natural experiment, we use panel data analysis to test the effect of the COVID-19 virus, which is a contagious infectious disease, on the Chinese stock market. The findings indicate that both the daily growth in total confirmed cases and in total cases of death caused by COVID-19 have significant negative effects on stock returns across all companies. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.