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In this paper, we study how China's stock market reacts to the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, particularly to the announcement of the pandemic lockdown. In general, we observe reversals both at the industry level and at the firm level due to investors' overreactions to the pandemic lockdown. For industry- and firm-level stocks with positive cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) in the event window when Wuhan was locked down, the reversals are stronger. Thus, the reversal effects are mostly driven by industries and stocks that positively overreact to COVID-19 than do others. Further investigation shows that overreactions are stronger for stocks with lower institutional ownership, which means that retail investors react more strongly to COVID-19. Among stocks with positive CARs in the event window, those with higher idiosyncratic volatilities and lower book-to-market ratios tend to have worse performance after one month. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 has posed a serious threat to more than 200 countries, causing over one million deaths worldwide (as of December 2020) and leading to lockdowns that are unprecedented in modern times. Given the physical restrictions, social media platforms have become crucial for people to maintain contact and share ideas during the pandemic. In this paper, I examine the discursive representations of evaders of the Wuhan lockdown. Specifically, I investigate how social media users employed animal metaphors to portray the identities of people who fled Wuhan during this time. More than 250 posts with over 15,000 comments were collected from the Chinese microblogging site Weibo; data were thematically analyzed, and metaphors were identified. The results demonstrated that various kinds of animal metaphors were used to discredit the evaders and to highlight their objectionable behavior and moral standards. The use of violent expressions associated with animal metaphors also revealed the issue of dehumanization vis-à-vis all the residents in Wuhan, which has various theoretical and ideological implications. The findings suggest that, while dehumanizing the evaders by likening their health status to that of infected animals, the users unconsciously revealed the evaders' helplessness and inability to control their situation, reflecting ideological ambivalence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Production fragmentation across multiple regions can result in a regional shock propagating along value chains to a wider array of regions. We propose a methodological framework to measure the economic exposure to regional value chain disruptions due to city lockdown during Covid-19. The exposure index is evaluated by applying a hypothetical extraction method to a regionally extended inter-country input–output framework incorporating China's interregional input–output table. Our methodology can be adapted to conduct disaster impact analyses at city, state and country levels. It provides a tool for the immediate assessment of the economic risks of value chain disruptions, enabling quick policy responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How did residents in Wuhan, who were at the epicenter of the initial COVID-19 outbreaks in China evaluate the risk to themselves and to society at large, and take action accordingly? This study examines the need for orientation, cognitive reasoning of COVID-19 news, and perceived risk, which all contributed to protective action during the city's total lockdown. Using data collected in a mobile CATI survey during the peak of the outbreaks in February 2020, findings show that the attention to COVID-19 in digital media predicted the perception of the coronavirus pandemic as a personal risk. In addition, the need for orientation and elaboration of news about the outbreaks were positively associated with perceived risk target – personal and societal. Finally, perceived personal risk proved a stronger predictor than perceived risk to society in general for taking protective behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates how travel restrictions affect the spatiotemporal pattern of human mobility and COVID-19 confirmed cases. Based on recorded movement and Baidu mobility index, in- and out-migration were estimated to examine the geographic pattern of human mobility across many Chinese cities from Jan 1 – Feb 11 of 2020. In addition to the baseline model of city lockdown , this study also explored the time lag effect of COVID-19 incubation period before/after Jan 28 (i.e. 5 days) and Feb 6 (i.e. 2 weeks) as well. Full factorial Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) tests reviewed significant differences of migration pattern by lockdown and origin/destination, which are also significantly associated with the confirmed cases of COVID-19 as well. Specifically, human mobility dropped proportionally after the lockdown regardless of origin location, but Hubei destination was significantly lower than non-Hubei destination. The model assuming an incubation period of 5 days differentiated the differences of COVID-19 cases better than the baseline and 14 days model. Spatiotemporal cluster analysis identified multiple space-time windows that were related to migration trajectory assuming a 5–14 days incubation period. The pre-lockdown clusters due to traveler's outflow from Wuhan to those megacities were the pathways for international transmission of COVID-19, whereas the post-lockdown clusters were partially related to the migration pattern especially within the eastern part of Hubei around Wuhan. The geographic pattern revealed from this study confirmed the presence of super spreaders that were responsible for regional spreading at the early stage and caused local outbreaks in the latter stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the evolution of the Chinese Spring Festival travel network during COVID-19 early outbreak (Jan 17 to Feb 23, 2020) in China and explore the impacts of COVID-19 on the evolution of the intercity travel network. We find that the connections of a China city with other 27.9 cities were cut off after the Wuhan lockdown (Jan 23). Correlating the degree centrality of each city and the cumulative numbers of COVID-19 confirmed cases, we find that cities with confirmed cases have 87.63 more indegrees and 97.13 more outdegrees than cities without confirmed cases. We also find that Jan 24 (one day after the Wuhan lockdown) has the highest effect of cumulative cases on indegree that is one additional confirmed case corresponds to 0.159 decreases in indegree. In terms of outdegree, Feb 2 has the highest effect that is one additional confirmed case corresponds to 0.022 decreases in outdegree. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wuhan, the original epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, was under strict lockdown for 76 days. We conducted 30 in-depth interviews to understand Wuhan residents' lived experiences of lockdown life. We found that despite strong emotions initially, Wuhan residents quickly adapted to life under unprecedented lockdown. We identified three pre-existing structures that facilitated the effective implementation of the massive lockdown: ready-made containment units offered by urban "gated" housing, a comprehensive grassroots governance network coordinated by shequ (community residence committees), and the ubiquitous WeChat app in Chinese daily life. We also showed that the pre-existing structures provided space for uncontentious self-organizing, grassroots mobilization, and civic engagement that often dove-tailed with state-mandated measures. This study details the resources Wuhan residents drew upon to get by during the lockdown, and it illustrates that the feasibility of lockdown measures relies heavily on a society's structural and institutional conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]