China's stock market greatly outperformed other national markets during the first several months of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it did so even before it became evident that early containment efforts would flounder in the United States and many other countries. As to why, one view holds that...

The 2005 split-share reform in China mandated the conversion of nontradable stocks into tradable status. This paper examines the effects of stock markets on corporate outcomes exploiting multiple institutional features of the Chinese conversion program. Using a generalized propensity score...