We develop a theoretical model quantifying how firm-level pandemic exposure and sentiment, as informational shocks, affect a firm’s credit spread and default risk. Consistent with model predictions, we find significantly positive impacts on single-name credit default swap (CDS) spreads from...

In this paper, we provide evidence on two alternative mechanisms of interaction between returns and volatilities: the leverage effect and the volatility feedback effect. We stress the importance of distinguishing between realized volatility and implied volatility, and find that implied...

Climate science finds that the trend towards higher global temperatures exacerbates the risks of droughts. We investigate whether the prices of food stocks efficiently discount these risks. Using data from thirty-one countries with publicly-traded food companies, we rank these countries each...

This paper finds evidence that stock returns vary with the physical climate change exposure of firms in a predictable manner. We construct measures of exposures to physical climate changes at the firm level, and find that firms with high climate change exposures experience lower future...

We re-visit a puzzling result that in U.S. post-WW II data the dividend price ratio can predict aggregate returns but not dividend growth. We find that predictive regressions are sensitive to the method used to aggregate firm-level data. Using value weighted firm-level data we find strong...

In this paper we propose exact likelihood-based mean-variance efficiency tests of the market portfolio in the context of Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), allowing for a wide class of error distributions which include normality as a special case. These tests are developed in the framework of...

In this paper we propose exact likelihood-based mean-variance efficiency tests of the market portfolio in the context of Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), allowing for a wide class of error distributions which include normality as a special case. These tests are developed in the framework of...

We examine the impact of COVID-19 (C-19) pandemic on global equity markets by constructing novel infection indices. Our results show that the impact of prompt and large-scale policy interventions is ambiguous yet statistically significant. However, in this equivocality, the impact of global...

This paper examines the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on stock returns, CDS and economic activity in the US and the five European countries (the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain) which have been most affected. The sample period covers the dates from the first confirmed COVID-19 cases in...