Did all Emerging Equity Markets get Equally Affected by Covid-19? Role of Market Characteristics, Economic Conditions, and Government Policies

The Covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on global economies. Emerging markets were hit particularly harder during the Covid19 pandemic due to their reliance on exports, tourism, and weaker fiscal policies. This paper aims to analyze the performance of the equity markets of 22 developing countries based on their average firm-related characteristics, macroeconomic conditions, and freedom variables during the early outbreak of Covid-19. Our results show that leverage, the fiscal health of the country, and financial freedom were the most important variables for emerging market countries as they provided resilience during the Pandemic. These findings have clear policy implications and are important for the sustainability of emerging stock markets.