The Effects of the COVID-19 Outbreak on the Global Retail Industry: An Event Study Approach

Abstract In this study, we examined the COVID-19 effect in the global scale on the global retail markets with the Event Study methodology. The sample used in the study consists of data from 10 developed and developing countries in six continents, which are obtained from Reuters DataStream. The top large-cap, blue-chip companies in the stock market for each economies were included in the study, which is totaled of 91 active retail sector shares and major indices. Based on our findings; the cumulative average of abnormal returns (CAAR) of the retailers in three Event Studies in question showed a distortion in the efficiency of the formation of the retail prices at the 0.01, 0.01, and 0.05 significance levels and the global retail stock prices overreacted more.