Aye Corona! The Contagion Effects of Being Named Corona during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

In the midst of the 2020 global COVID-2019 pandemic and subsequent financial market collapse, corporate entities have to navigate a number of truly unforeseen contagion risks. However, one such group included those who shared their corporate identity with aspects of the rapidly evolving coronavirus. Our results indicate the existence of sharp, dynamic and new correlations between companies related to the term `corona', outside of pre-existing interrelationships. We provide a number of observations as to why this situation occurred.

Keywords: COVID-19, Coronavirus, Contagion, Stock Market, Sentiment

JEL Classification: G14