Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on sovereign credit default swap (CDS) spreads using a large sample of countries. Design/methodology/approach: In this paper, the authors use a wide set of the sovereign CDS data of...

This study investigates job search activity in the United States by constructing a set of sectoral job search activity indices based on Internet search volumes. The indices are positively associated with countercyclical labour market measures, including unemployment and layoff rates, but are...

Despite government policies targeting it, digital piracy remains rampant. Academic research has not reached a consensus on whether piracy is harmful to the affected firms or industries. This study constructs a new piracy index based on internet search frequency in China that reflects the...

This study investigates the effects of political uncertainty (PU) on corporate debt maturity and leverage using a novel measure of firm-specific PU. We find that PU is negatively associated with debt maturity and leverage. Furthermore, the negative effects of PU on debt maturity and leverage are...

Although most empirical studies conclude that uncertainty delays firms' investments based on real options theory, empirical evidence regarding the impact of uncertainty on innovation is mixed. This study examines the impact of geopolitical risk (GPR) on corporate research and development (R&D)...

This study investigates the effects of geopolitical risk (GPR) on asset markets in 17 advanced countries from 1899 to 2016 using novel GPR indices. First, compared with housing returns, stock returns are more sensitive to increases in GPR: on average, an increase in GPR significantly decreases...

This paper examines the effects of public news releases on the market liquidity in one of the most important OTC derivatives markets — the CDS market. We document that, at the time of news releases, the bid-ask spread is wider, the number of quotes is larger, and the number of dealers is...

This study examines the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on sovereign CDS spreads using a large sample of countries. We show how sovereign CDS spreads have widened significantly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the most conservative estimate, a 1% increase in COVID-19 infections...