Is ESG Relevant to Electricity Companies during Pandemics? A Case Study on European Firms during COVID-19

The electricity sector was negatively impacted by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), with considerable declines in consumption in the initial phase. Investors were in turmoil, and stock prices for these companies plummeted. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the significant negative influence of the pandemic on abnormal returns for the electricity sector, specifically for traditional and renewable companies and the influence of ESG scores, using the event study approach and multi-variate regressions. Our results show that the pandemic indeed had a negative impact on the electricity sector, with renewable electricity companies suffering a sharper decline than traditional ones. Moreover, we find that ESG pillar scores affected electricity companies differently and are sector-specific. For renewable electricity companies, the returns were positively influenced by the environmental ESG scores and negatively by governance ESG scores.

DAMPAK COVID-19 TERHADAP ABNORMAL RETURN DAN VOLUME PERDAGANGAN SAHAM

The COVID-19 pandemic is a non-natural disaster that has a huge impact around the world. This research is a quantitative research with event study method. The purpose of this research is to test the capital market reaction by looking at abnormal returns and trading volume activity before and after the COVID-19 non-natural disaster. The event day in this study was April 13rd, 2020 when the Presidential Decree was issued regarding the designation of COVID-19 as a national disaster. Using purposive sampling method, the sample of this study were 27 companies engaged in the hotel, restaurant, and tourism sub-sectors listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. The event period is 11 days, namely 5 days before the event, 1 day at the time of the event and 5 days after the event. Data analysis using t-test and wilxocon signed ranks test. The results of this study are: 1) there is no abnormal return during the event period, 2) there is no difference in the average abnormal return before and after the COVID-19 non-natural disaster event, 3) there is no difference in the average trading volume activity before and after the COVID-19 non-natural disaster event and after the COVID-19 non-natural disaster event. Keywords: Event Study, Abnormal Return, Trading Volume Activity, COVID-19.

Information Networks and Collective Action: Evidence from the Women’s Temperance Crusade

How do social interactions shape collective action, and how are they mediated by networked information technologies? We answer these questions studying the Temperance Crusade, a wave of anti-liquor protest activity spreading across 29 states between 1873 and 1874. Relying on exogenous variation in network links generated by railroad accidents, we provide causal evidence of social interactions driving the diffusion of the movement, mediated by rail and telegraph information about neighboring activity. Local newspaper coverage of the crusade was a key channel mediating these effects. Using an event-study methodology, we find strong complementarities between rail and telegraph networks in driving the movement’s spread. (JEL D83, J16, L92, L96, N31, N41, N71)

Governmental Announcements and Indian Stock Market: Evidence from Indian Manufacturing Sector

The Indian Manufacturing sector lags behind in contributing to economic devel- opment, as compared to its peer nations and therefore, to boost the sectorís contribution to the economy and to transform the economy into a cashless economy, the government of India had announced three major steps, Make in India, Demonetization and GST. In the present study using event study methodology, the immediate impact of the announcements on the stock of the companies from the Indian Manufacturing sector is examined and found that the announcement of the Make in India positively ináuenced the security returns. In contrast, negative impact on the security prices is witnessed on the announcement of Demonetization, whereas the GST implementation has no impact.

Market Reaction to Dividend Announcements During Pandemic: An Event Study

This study analyses the difference in stock market reactions to dividend announcement during the pandemic. The thirty constituent stocks of Sensex, the index of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), is used for analysis. This allows cross-industry comparison of the market reaction. The study examines stock market reactions covering 44 days around the dividend announcement dates. The primary objective of this study is to understand whether the price adjustment linked to the dividend announcement news during the pandemic was different from the earlier years. This empirical study employs the conventional event study methodology using abnormal returns (ARs) to examine the stock market reaction to dividend announcement. The market reaction to dividend announcement was increasingly positive during the pandemic, compared to previous years. The statistical pooled t-tests showed there was a significant relationship between the pandemic and ARs. The findings also indicate that the difference in the market reaction to dividend announcement was more prominent in services stocks than that in manufacturing. Further, the results also verify the weak-form of efficiency of Indian stock exchange.

The Capital Market Response to The Announcement of The 2019-2024 Indonesia Onward Cabinet System

This research aims to examine capital market response to the 2019-2024 Indonesia Onward Cabinet System announced by President Jokowi. This event study research used market estimation model to estimate the expected return with an estimated period of 100 days and window period of seven days. There were 90 companies that are the member of Kompas Index 100 as the sample used in this research. T-test was used to analyze the data. The result shows that the announcement System of Indonesia Onward Cabinet 2019-2024 was responded positively and significantly by capital market. The result supports signaling theory in which the announcement of the 2019-2024 Indonesia Onward Cabinet System gave positive signal (influence) on capital market.