Risk assessment on continued public health threats: Evidence from China’s stock market

Given the disturbing effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, we are motivated to examine whether the continued increase of the provincial public health threats affects the firms accumulative abnormal return. Using the 178,805 firm-day observations from Chinese listed firms from 10 January to 31 March 2020, we find that the accumulative abnormal return is significantly lower among firms located in the provinces where face the continued increase of new confirmed COVID-19 cases. The relations remain constant after several robustness tests. These findings suggest that investors concern about the potential risk when firms are located in the provinces with higher threats to public health. We also find that the negative effect of increasing public health threats on abnormal return is weaker for firms surrounded by a provincial environment with stronger information accessibility and economic growth. Overall, this study extends the literature by presenting systematic evidence on the effect of the continued increase of provincial public health threats on the market reaction in Chinese listed firms.