IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/rcorpf/v9y2020i3p534-568..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The COVID-19 Shock and Equity Shortfall: Firm-Level Evidence from Italy

Author

Listed:
  • Elena Carletti
  • Tommaso Oliviero
  • Marco Pagano
  • Loriana Pelizzon
  • Marti G Subrahmanyam

Abstract

We employ a representative sample of 80,972 Italian firms to forecast the drop in profits and the equity shortfall triggered by the COVID-19 lockdown. A 3-month lockdown generates an aggregate yearly drop in profits of about 10% of GDP, and 17% of sample firms, which employ 8.8% of the sample’s employees, become financially distressed. Distress is more frequent for small and medium-sized enterprises, for firms with high pre-COVID-19 leverage, and for firms belonging to the Manufacturing and Wholesale Trading sectors. Listed companies are less likely to enter distress, whereas the correlation between distress rates and family firm ownership is weak. (JEL G01, G32, G33)Received July 8, 2020; editorial decision July 20, 2020 by Editor Uday Rajan.

Suggested Citation

  • Elena Carletti & Tommaso Oliviero & Marco Pagano & Loriana Pelizzon & Marti G Subrahmanyam, 2020. "The COVID-19 Shock and Equity Shortfall: Firm-Level Evidence from Italy," The Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 9(3), pages 534-568.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:rcorpf:v:9:y:2020:i:3:p:534-568.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/rcfs/cfaa014
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Isil Erel & Brandon Julio & Woojin Kim & Michael S. Weisbach, 2012. "Macroeconomic Conditions and Capital Raising," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(2), pages 341-376.
    2. Rüdiger Fahlenbrach & Kevin Rageth & René M Stulz, 2021. "How Valuable Is Financial Flexibility when Revenue Stops? Evidence from the COVID-19 Crisis [The risk of being a fallen angel and the corporate dash for cash in the midst of COVID]," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(11), pages 5474-5521.
    3. Stefano Ramelli & Alexander F Wagner, 2020. "Feverish Stock Price Reactions to COVID-19," The Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 9(3), pages 622-655.
    4. Altman, Edward I. & Esentato, Maurizio & Sabato, Gabriele, 2020. "Assessing the credit worthiness of Italian SMEs and mini-bond issuers," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    5. Şebnem Kalemli-Özcan & Luc Laeven & David Moreno, 2022. "Debt Overhang, Rollover Risk, and Corporate Investment: Evidence from the European Crisis," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 20(6), pages 2353-2395.
    6. Pagano, Marco & Wagner, Christian & Zechner, Josef, 2023. "Disaster resilience and asset prices," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(2).
    7. Stefano Ramelli & Alexander F Wagner, 0. "Feverish Stock Price Reactions to COVID-19," Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 9(3), pages 622-655.
    8. Brunnermeier, Markus & Krishnamurthy, Arvind, 2020. "Corporate Debt Overhang and Credit Policy," Research Papers 3876, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    9. Fabiano Schivardi & Enrico Sette & Guido Tabellini, 2020. "Identifying the Real Effects of Zombie Lending," The Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 9(3), pages 569-592.
    10. Carla Guerriero & Andy Haines & Marco Pagano, 2020. "Health and sustainability in post-pandemic economic policies," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 3(7), pages 494-496, July.
    11. Fabiano Schivardi & Enrico Sette & Guido Tabellini, 0. "Identifying the Real Effects of Zombie Lending," Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 9(3), pages 569-592.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ducret, Romain, 2021. "Investors' perception of business group membership during an economic crisis : Evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic," FSES Working Papers 524, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Freiburg/Fribourg Switzerland.
    2. repec:fip:a00001:89433 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Dunbar, Kwamie, 2022. "Impact of the COVID-19 event on U.S. banks’ financial soundness," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    4. Viral V Acharya & Robert Engle & Maximilian Jager & Sascha Steffen, 2024. "Why Did Bank Stocks Crash during COVID-19?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 37(9), pages 2627-2684.
    5. Bae, Kee-Hong & El Ghoul, Sadok & Gong, Zhaoran (Jason) & Guedhami, Omrane, 2021. "Does CSR matter in times of crisis? Evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    6. Elham Daadmehr, 2024. "Workplace sustainability or financial resilience? Composite-financial resilience index," Risk Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 26(2), pages 1-35, May.
    7. Viral V Acharya & Sascha Steffen, 2020. "The Risk of Being a Fallen Angel and the Corporate Dash for Cash in the Midst of COVID," The Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 9(3), pages 430-471.
    8. Nils Engelhardt & Jens Ekkenga & Peter Posch, 2021. "ESG Ratings and Stock Performance during the COVID-19 Crisis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-15, June.
    9. Rahman, Md Lutfur & Al Mamun, Mohammed Abdullah, 2021. "How resilient are the Asia Pacific financial markets against a global pandemic?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    10. Ruggero Jappelli & Loriana Pelizzon & Alberto Plazzi, 2021. "The Core, the Periphery, and the Disaster: Corporate-Sovereign Nexus in COVID-19 Times," Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series 21-30, Swiss Finance Institute.
    11. Xiaoling Chu & Chiuling Lu & Desmond Tsang, 2021. "Geographic Scope and Real Estate Firm Performance during the COVID-19 Pandemic," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-16, July.
    12. Greppmair, Stefan & Jank, Stephan & Smajlbegovic, Esad, 2023. "On the importance of fiscal space: Evidence from short sellers during the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    13. Roddy Allan & Ervi Liusman & Teddy Lu & Desmond Tsang, 2021. "The COVID-19 Pandemic and Commercial Property Rent Dynamics," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-24, August.
    14. Garel, Alexandre & Petit-Romec, Arthur, 2021. "Investor rewards to environmental responsibility: Evidence from the COVID-19 crisis," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    15. Heyden, Kim J. & Heyden, Thomas, 2021. "Market reactions to the arrival and containment of COVID-19: An event study," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    16. repec:zbw:bofitp:2020_015 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Ľuboš Pástor & M Blair Vorsatz & Jeffrey Pontiff, 0. "Mutual Fund Performance and Flows during the COVID-19 Crisis," The Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 10(4), pages 791-833.
    18. Andrieș, Alin Marius & Ongena, Steven & Sprincean, Nicu, 2021. "The COVID-19 Pandemic and Sovereign Bond Risk," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    19. Gregory, Richard Paul, 2022. "ESG scores and the response of the S&P 1500 to monetary and fiscal policy during the Covid-19 pandemic," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 446-456.
    20. Harrison Hong & Jeffrey D. Kubik & Neng Wang & Xiao Xu & Jinqiang Yang, 2020. "Pandemics, Vaccines and an Earnings Damage Function," NBER Working Papers 27829, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    21. Ding, Wenzhi & Levine, Ross & Lin, Chen & Xie, Wensi, 2021. "Corporate immunity to the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(2), pages 802-830.
    22. Choudhary, M. Ali & Jain, Anil K., 2021. "Corporate stress and bank nonperforming loans: Evidence from Pakistan," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G01 - Financial Economics - - General - - - Financial Crises
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • G33 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Bankruptcy; Liquidation

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:rcorpf:v:9:y:2020:i:3:p:534-568.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/rcfs .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.