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.

Purpose: The authors analyze the impact of COVID-19 on listed European electricity companies and differentiate between renewable and traditional electricity, to show the heterogenous characteristics of electricity subsectors and the differences between renewable and traditional electricity.Design/methodology/approach: Using the event study method, the authors calculate the cumulative average abnormal returns (ARs) before and after the World Health Organization pandemic announcement and the declaration of national lockdowns in Europe.Findings: The results show that while the European electricity sector was overall negatively impacted by the COVID-19 announcement, this impact was larger for renewable companies due to their riskier investment profile. Moreover, after the national lockdowns came into effect, the recovery in the financial markets return was smaller for the latter.Research limitations/implications: There may be variables to be included in the model to analyze possible differences between companies and countries, as well as alternative econometric models. Limited to the data, the authors did not investigate the different impact of the economic policy uncertainty from various countries inside or outside the EU.Practical implications: The results have important implications for both investors and policymakers since the heterogenous characteristics of electricity subsectors. This heterogeneity prompts different investor reactions, which are necessary to know and to understand.Originality/value: As far as the authors know, this is the first study that analyses the effect of COVID-19 in heterogeneity profile of both types of electricity, renewable and traditional.

The paper investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, using the event study approach for the Bucharest Stock Exchange, by which Bucharest Stock Indices and listed firms grouped by sectors were analyzed. The paper uses three important event days, 20 January 2020, 11 March 2020, and 15 March 2020. The findings demonstrate that initially investors were not concerned about the pandemic, showing that they did not realize the extent of globalization and transmission of events on financial markets. Both after 11 March and after 15 March 2020, stock indices have declined, investors becoming worried about the prospects of their dividends and the stock liquidity. The most affected sectors were those related to metallurgical industry, IT&C. After the lockdown, there was a reversal for some sectors like pharmaceutical and biotechnology, electricity production, transportation and distribution, and IT&C. Understanding the intensity and direction of the link between some sectors and indices may influence investment strategies and help in hedging, especially in times of pandemics.

Objective: this research paper reviews the political and economic factors surrounding the phenomenon of de-dollarization among the BRICS nations.

This paper investigates the use of redundancy procedures (RPs) by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Spain during the COVID-19 pandemic. The novelty of this study is that it goes beyond the direct influence of the determinants of RPs on RP use, and analyses how the interactions among them moderate the direct effect. In contexts of rising uncertainty, businesses need to adapt their operations and fixed costs, including staffing. While teleworking is an alternative to RPs, our results show that it was not enough to deal with the negative impact of a worsening crisis. Moreover, when the survival of the business is at stake, the use of RPs increases further when the company is simultaneously affected by changes in demand and liquidity issues. We argue that our results reveal the need for flexible tools along with the policies that take into account the fact that businesses' reactions are contingent on their exposure to risk.

The energy sector has seen many changes in the past years after the coronavirus pandemic and high volatility as Russia invaded Ukraine, with oil and gas stocks having highs and lows. Using the event study approach, we analyze the effect of the announcement of the partial mobilization of the Russian army on 21 September 2022 for listed energy companies in Russia. We find that the announcement had a negative effect on Russian oil and gas companies. Moreover, this negative effect was larger one day before the announcement, which can be correlated with a possible insider trading event. Our results show the riskier profile of the energy sector in relation to possible events like political decisions or declarations. Our findings have important implications for policymakers, who have to take into account the fact that words have meaning in the financial market.