ISSN: 2056-3736 (Online Version) | 2056-3728 (Print Version)

Do COVID-19 Incidence and Government Intervention Influence Media Indices?

Steven Buigut and Burcu Kapar

Correspondence: Burcu Kapar, bkapar@aud.edu

School of Business Administration, American University in Dubai

pdf (521.12 Kb) | doi: https://doi.org/10.47260/bae/925

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to batter the world economy, strain the limited global health resources and dominate the world media. Even with the emergence of vaccines, there is still a substantial level of uncertainty. The study analyses the effects of COVID-19 incidence, government intervention and level of development on media coverage, and investor sentiments. The study uses daily data from the Ravenpack finance for the period January 2020 to November 2020 for 75 countries. The results show that NPIs increase the media attention, increase panic and depress market sentiment. Furthermore, higher number of COVID-19 cases and deaths affect promote panic and depress sentiment. We also show that a higher human development index increases media coverage, and depresses the sentiment, while a higher level of digital adoption reduces panic and depresses the market sentiment.

Keywords:

  COVID-19, Ravenpack Indices, Media Attention, Stringency Index.


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