Does the Pandemic Declaration influence the Firm Value of the Untact Firms?

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of the Pandamic Declaration on ‘untact firms’ listed in KOSPI and KOSDAQ market in order to verify Investor Mania Hypothesis. Design/methodology/approach This study collected financial data for 44 untact firms in KOSPI and KOSDAQ market. Then, we employed ESM(Event Study Methodology), EGARCH model and DID(Difference-In-Difference) for analysis. Findings - First, in contrast with the benchmarking index, KOSPI 200 which shows a negative (-) abnormal return trend, the untact firms have positive abnormal return trend consistently. Second, after the Pandemic Declaration, the variability of abnormal return for the untact firms is found to be significantly positive. Third, we find that the cumulative abnormal return and volatility of the untact firms significantly increase after the Pandemic Declaration. Research implications or Originality - Based on the Investor Mania Hypothesis, we confirm that the market potential of untact firms after the Pandemic Declaration is observed when compared with the KOSPI 200.