Investigating the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on Kuwait stock return: (A) symmetric time-varying evaluation

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to explore the long- and short-run effects of daily confirmed cases of COVID-19 (Ct) on daily stock returns (Rt) for Kuwait. This is the first study that was applied to the case of Kuwait. Design/methodology/approach We employed the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model of Pesaran et al. (2001) and the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) model of Shin et al. (2001) for daily data over the period March 2020 to August 2021. Findings The findings first document the existence of a long-run relationship (cointegration). Second, the findings of the ARDL model show a significant positive long-run effect of daily confirmed cases of COVID-19 (Ct) on daily stock returns (Rt) but a significant negative short-run effect. As for the NARDL model, the findings showed that the increase and decrease of daily confirmed cases of COVID-19 (Ct−1+,Ct−1−) have symmetric long-run effects on daily stock returns but asymmetric short-run effects. Finally, the vector error correction model causality test shows significant long- and short-run unidirectional causality running from daily confirmed cases of COVID-19 (Ct) to daily stock returns (Rt). Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study that was applied to the case of Kuwait.