Prashant Sharma

With the outbreak of COVID-19, the Chinese government implemented the “zero-COVID” policy as a measure to curb the spread of the virus. The different measures of the policy include widespread testing, contact tracing, and strict quarantine and isolation protocols. In view of recent changes in COVID-19 trends and other economic indicators, the Chinese government withdrew significant provisions of the zero-COVID policy in China. The present study investigates the sectoral performance of the Chinese stock market after the withdrawal of the zero-COVID policy. The study considers eighteen sectoral indices of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange of China as a sample and applies the event study methodology to study the impact of the policy withdrawal on the stock prices performance. The results of the study indicate that sectors such as hotel, consumer staples, the financial sector, real estate, media, and culture have reported significant positive movement after the withdrawal of the zero-COVID policy, while other sectors such as consumer discretionary, energy, healthcare, information technology, manufacturing, mining, technology, telecom, transportation, utilities, wholesale, and retail have shown insignificant reactions. These results also indicate that when the COVID-19 outbreak happened in China, different sectors of the economy reacted negatively except the retail and wholesale sectors, while with the withdrawal of the zero-COVID policy by the Chinese government, the reaction of investors is optimistic as different sectors are reporting either positive reactions in the stock price movement or no reaction.

This study investigates the interconnected roles of infrastructure development, financial growth, and economic growth in SAARC nations. Using principal component analysis, the paper develops a composite infrastructure development index, which integrates factors such as access to electricity, telecommunications, air transport, and agricultural land use. This index serves as a comprehensive measure to assess and compare infrastructural progress across the region. Econometric analyses, including Pedroni’s and Kao’s cointegration tests, reveal long-term associations between the studied variables. The results demonstrate a bidirectional relationship between trade openness and GDP growth in the short term, as well as unidirectional influences from inflation to financial development and from infrastructure development to inflation. However, findings vary across SAARC countries, reflecting their diverse economic structures and development stages. Notably, Afghanistan is excluded due to data limitations, emphasizing the region-specific focus of the results. The study highlights the critical role of targeted infrastructure investment and financial sector reforms in fostering sustainable economic growth. Policymakers are encouraged to consider these findings when designing synchronized public and private sector initiatives to bridge development gaps. By offering detailed insights into region-specific dynamics, this study enriches understanding of the complex interplay between infrastructure, finance, and economic growth in emerging economies.

This paper examines the influence of marketing expenses and total assets on the technical efficiency of big Ukrainian pharmaceutical producers during the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. The data were collected from the nine leading pharmaceutical firms for six years, covering 2018–2023. Input-oriented data envelopment analysis was used, with revenue serving as the output and raw materials, sales, and general and administrative expenses as the inputs. The study found that the COVID-19 pandemic and the onset of the full-scale invasion of Russia in Ukraine caused a decline in efficiency, although not statistically significant. The analysis showed that around 70% of pharmaceutical firms need to increase the scale of operations to achieve efficiency. Additionally, smaller and older firms were found to have better efficiency. The research findings show that marketing productivity is positively associated with pure efficiency, while marketing expenses have the opposite impact with coefficients 0.064 and –0.05, respectively. Finally, a substantial increase in slacks during the COVID-19 pandemic propelled managers to find ways to cut sales and general and administrative costs. The results underscore the importance of cost optimization policies, along with asset and business-scale management in maintaining the efficiency of Ukrainian pharmaceutical firms.