This study aims to investigate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the stock markets of sixteen countries. Pooled OLS regression, conventional t-test and Mann-Whitney test are used to estimate the results of the study. We construct a weekly panel data of COVID-19 new cases and stock returns. Pooled OLS estimation result shows that the growth rate of weekly new cases of COVID-19 negatively predicts the return in stock market. Next, the returns on leading stock indices of these countries during the COVID-19 outbreak period are compared with returns during the non-COVID period. We use a t-test and Mann-Whitney test to compare the returns. The results reveal that investors in these countries do not react to the media news of COVID-19 at the early stage of the pandemic. However, once the human-to-human transmissibility had been confirmed, all of the stock market indices negatively reacted to the news in the short-and long-event window. Interestingly, we noticed that the Shanghai Composite Index, which was severely affected during the short-event window, bounced back during the long-event window. This indicates that the Chinese government's drastic measures to contain the spread of the pandemic regained the confidence of investors in the Shanghai Stock Market.

Environmental quality has become a growing concern for Chinese society since the last 2 decades in China. The large contribution of different pollutants severely affected the environmental quality that untimely affects life expectancy in the country. In this backdrop, the present study investigates the impact of environmental quality and public spending on the environment for life expectancy in China using the period 1999Q1-2017Q4. We employ nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL) approach for the empirical assessment. The outcomes of the study reveal the existence of a long-run relationship between environmental quality, public spending on the environment and life expectancy in China. The empirical finding reported that life expectancy reacts differently in response to positive and negative shocks of environmental quality both in the long-and short-run. Environmental quality and spending on the environment increase the life expectancy, furthermore, population has a positive and significant association with life expectancy only in short run while in long run it does not affect. Hence, the government needs to roll out policies to enhance environmental quality and ensure adequate funding for environmental preservation, to achieve both longevity of society and sustainability of the ecosystem .

Since the end of 2019, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has engendered widespread fear and anxiety across China. Nearly half a million international students pursuing their studies in Chinese universities have also been exposed to the psychological distress triggered by the unfolding crisis. In addition to government and medical institutions' efforts, universities have also endeavored to mitigate concerns among these students under quarantine on campus by providing reliable information as well as medical, monetary, and emotional support. In this study, international students' trust in university management teams and its role in remediating their anxieties were evaluated using an online survey conducted after 10 days of the lockdown of Wuhan, China. The empirical analysis incorporates quantitative data from 180 international students. Ordinary least squares regression and probit regression were used in the analysis with the non-robust and robust models. The study found students' perception of trust in university management to be negatively associated with their anxiety levels. Additionally, having trust in university management was found to positively influence students' commitment to the self-quarantine guidelines. These results reinforce the important role of universities and their relationship with international students during public health emergencies.

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The purpose of this study is to investigate the determinants of the capital structure of firms operating in a developing economy, Pakistan. The quantile regression method is applied on a sample of 183 non-financial companies listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange during the period of 2008-2017. Specifically, the empirical analysis focuses on changes in the coefficients of the determinants according to the leverage ratio quantiles of the examined listed firms. The findings show that the capital structure of Pakistan listed firms differs between firms in different quantiles of leverage. These differences are significant with the sign of explanatory variables changes with the level of leverage. The research result found tangibility, profitability and age to be positively related to leverage among listed firms in Pakistan. However, size, liquidity and non-debt tax shield (NDTS) are negatively related to leverage. A firm's growth and risk are found to be insignificant predictors of capital structure in Pakistan listed firms. Moreover, the study also found a significant impact of industry characteristic on leverage. The findings of this study indicate that an individual firm's finance policy needs to be responsive to the firm's characteristics and should match with the different borrowing requirements of listed firms.