Comparative analysis of developed, emerging, and underdeveloped economies using statistical analysis to determine how COVID-19 affects a firm's performance

Abstract

Background: Covid-19 began in Wuhan, Huabi China in December 2019 and spread worldwide. It was started by a virus called SARS-CoV2. Despite the fact that the outbreak was first focused in China, instances are also being reported in a number of other countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a health emergency due to the risk that Covid-19 poses to public health.  Materials and methods : the aim of the study is to inspect empirically the Covid-19’s impact on performance of firms of Developed, Emerging and Underdeveloped countries to check which countries got effected the most. Regression analysis is used to assess the consequence of the Covid-19 on performance of firms. Sample is of 17 countries with more than 300 firms for the period of 2013 to 2020. Fixed effect model is used for this study. This is country level analysis.  Results: it has been observed that covid-19 has significant negative impact on firm performance. These outcomes are also backed by comparing the actual data with forecasted one. Investment growth in covid-19 times did not moderate the relationship of covid-19 and firms’ performance whereas second moderator did moderate the relationships. It has been observed that developed economies has been effected more due to Covid-19 as compared to under developed and emerging economies. The limitations of this study are the unavailability of quarterly reports and data of few countries and firms, so removed. Due to time constraint all firms of every country was not catered.   Conclusion : this study has given an insight to managers to tune their policies to be ready for the post-endemic period. It is fruitful for the state so they can devise such policies to accommodate all industries and sectors for their loss or help them beforehand by anticipating the loss. It is advantageous for investors so to sight the variability of returns, rebalance portfolios by controlling the risk.