About 37% of Chinese listed firms have medical expertise, as measured by the existence of senior executives with a medical degree or medical-industry experience. Using the COVID-19 outbreak in China as a natural experiment, we find that the stock returns of firms with medical expertise, excluding those within the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry, are significantly higher than those without. The positive impact is more pronounced if a CEO or Chairman has medical expertise and if the firm is not state-owned. Overall, this study underlines the importance of diversified executive human capital on firm performance through disentangling macro shocks.

We propose a new approach to modeling bond risk and risk premia, inspired by the equity risk-return literature, which does not impose the tight restrictions found in models that generate closed-form bond prices. We estimate the joint dynamics of the volatility and Sharpe ratio of principal-component bond-factor portfolios as functions of yield curve variables and VIX. We uncover an important second factor in risk premia and document a complex time-varying relation between the price and quantity of interest rate risk inconsistent with the frameworks in existing studies. Exploiting this predictability in dynamic portfolio choice appears to enhance portfolio performance. Abstract We propose a new approach to modeling bond risk and risk premia, inspired by the equity risk-return literature, which does not impose the tight restrictions found in models that generate closed-form bond prices. We estimate the joint dynamics of the volatility and Sharpe ratio of principal-component bond-factor portfolios as functions of yield curve variables and VIX. We uncover an important second factor in risk premia and document a complex time-varying relation between the price and quantity of interest rate risk inconsistent with the frameworks in existing studies. Exploiting this predictability in dynamic portfolio choice appears to enhance portfolio performance.

What capital allocation role can China’s stock market play? Counter to perception, stock prices in China have become as informative about future profits as they are in the US. This rise in stock price informativeness has coincided with an increase in investment efficiency among privately owned firms, suggesting the market is aggregating information and providing useful signals to managers. However, price informativeness and investment efficiency for state-owned enterprises fell below that of privately owned firms after the postcrisis stimulus, perhaps reflecting unpredictable subsidies and state-directed investment policy. Finally, evidence from realized returns suggests Chinese firms face a higher cost of equity capital than US firms.

Using data on nearly 20,000 restaurants in China during the COVID-19 outbreak, we find evidence that the government-sponsored rent reduction program reduced debt overhang problems. Rent reductions, which averaged 36,000 RMB per restaurant, increase the open rate of restaurants by 3.7%, revenue by 11,000 RMB, and the number of employees by 0.36. Larger restaurants with higher committed costs benefit more from the rent reduction. The stimulus has a positive spillover effect that boosts the revenue of restaurants in the immediate vicinity of subsidized restaurants. The treatment effect varies with organizational structure in a manner consistent with an information frictions hypothesis.