We investigate the impacts of COVID-19 on the housing market in the Yangtze river delta region in China. We divide data into the groups of the municipality directly under the central government (first-tier city) and other provinces (second- and third-tier cities), and use average selling price of commercial housing to capture the performance of local housing market. The findings suggest significantly positive impacts of COVID-19 on housing price in this region, which implies the urgent needs of housing for families to stay together during the epidemic. The municipality directly under the central government (also the first-tier city) usually tends to have higher housing prices due to better economic and medical conditions and urban governance there, while such impacts shrink in the period of epidemic, implying the effective control of housing price there, which provides relevant policy guidance for other provinces and non-first-tier cities.

This article explores the factors that determine the effectiveness of environmental regulation in the United States and Australia. Unlike prior literature, in which lagging performance measures (such as carbon emissions) are used, we use financial data to develop effectiveness scores and identify the determinants of effectiveness, including narcissistic behaviour, tenure of political leaders and financial indicators. Consistent with the emerging literature on environmental finance, we find that abnormal returns are associated with environmental regulation and that effectiveness is adversely affected when narcissistic leaders are in power. Our results remain robust when we control for various event windows and models.

Purpose: This paper documents and links firm- and country-level outcomes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) by portraying how the Chinese economy has fared during the COVID-19 crisis. It does so by shedding light on the factors that determine the effectiveness of health policies implemented in China.Design/methodology/approach: Unlike the prior literature, in which lagging performance measures are used, the authors use leading indicators with event study methodology to develop effectiveness scores and identify the determinants of effectiveness, including financial variables, firm infection, geographical location of the spread, travel bans, lockdown periods, policies of home quarantine, health innovations and other innovative measures undertaken by the Chinese authorities.Findings: The detailed disaggregated results show many dimensions where abnormal returns are indeed associated with various health policies and that the effectiveness, influenced by firm size, profitability, firm infection and location. The results remain robust when the authors control for various event windows and models and provide evidence of a strong UNSDG link, which the authors draw up a list.Research limitations/implications: Apart from the quantitative analysis approach, future studies can complement and add further insights by utilizing qualitative research approaches.Practical implications: The results offers robust evidence for policy-makers and firm managers on how a crisis of such proportions and subsequent health policies is affecting different firms and why.Social implications: The study shows how COVID-19 health policies open a new dimension in terms of energy demand reduction and lower emissions, factors linking to the UNSDGs.Originality/value: The study is the first to show detailed disaggregated results across many dimensions where abnormal returns are indeed associated with various health policies and that the effectiveness, influenced by firm size, profitability, firm infection and location.

We assess the impacts of ownership structures on China’s P2P lending platforms. We classify data into private and non-private groups, and we use the information such as turnovers and net inflows to capture firm performance. The findings suggest that investors prefer non-private to private P2P platforms before and after related financial regulations. Private platforms thus increase their interest rates to attract borrowers, which surges systematic risks. Such results are especially dominant for P2P platforms in non-BSGS cities, indicating the difficultly private platforms compete against financial regulations.

We investigate the impacts of the public attention towards the COVID-19 on the situation of the epidemic worldwide and on public mobility with Google trends. We use the number of searches for two keywords ‘corona virus’ and ‘mask’ on the Google search index to show people’s public attention towards the epidemic. The findings show that confirmed cases and death rates are significantly positively (negatively) associated with the public attention paid to epidemic in the early (later) stage of the epidemic. The reason may be that in the early stage of the epidemic, public attention increased outpatient rates and therefore confirmed cases significantly, while in the later stage, public attention accordingly increased cure rates significantly. The epidemic significantly eases for people’s mobility trends when refraining from going outdoors. Such impacts are more profound for low-income countries.