Starts and refutations of the Covid-19 rumors:Evidence from the reaction of the stock market

By manually collecting data on Internet-based rumors concerning COVID-19,we investigate the market reactions to the spread of such rumors and the government’s refutation of them.We find that frightening(reassuring)rumors have a negative(positive)impact on investors.The refutation of frightening rumors triggers a positive market response,whereas the refutation of reassuring rumors does not cause a significant market reaction.Further analysis shows that there is a stock price drift when frightening rumors are refuted by governments.Our conclusions remain robust after considering endogeneity.Our findings support the notion that epidemic-related rumors affect investors’decisions,which add to literatures of the market responses of companies in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and provide incremental evidence for the“the spiral of silence”theory.

Does big data tax administration expand bank credit loans?

The application of big data technology to global tax management is becoming increasingly widespread.China has been implementing increasingly mature technologies for tax governance using big data systems in recent years.By collecting data through web scraping on the earliest implementation times of big data tax administration in various provinces of China,we explore the relationship between big data tax administration and corporate bank credit in emerging markets.Our results show that big data tax administration enhances firms’ability to obtain bank loans.Mechanism tests indicate that big data tax administration improves the quality of corporate information disclosure,facilitating access to bank credit loans.We find that big data tax administration improves the corporate financing environment,enhancing the efficiency of resource allocation in the credit market.