We examine the role of ESG performance during market-wide financial crisis, triggered in response to physical and economic lockdowns arising from the COVID-19 global pandemic. These unique circumstances create an inimitable opportunity to question if investors interpret ESG performance as a...

We extend Jin and Myers’ (2006) model to derive the relation between stock price crash risk and operating leverage (i.e., the fraction of fixed costs in total costs). The model predicts that (i) firms’ operating leverage decreases as stock price crash risk increases, and (ii) the negative...