Stock Markets and COVID-19 Outbreak Spillover Effects: Evidence from the MENA Region

Abstract

This paper examines the short and long impact of covid-19 and its spillover effects on MENA region stock markets by using the t-tests and Mann - Whitney non-parametric tests to examine the mean and median daily returns from June 25, 2019, to November 22, 2020.Using a sample of tenselected MENA countries and nine most affected word countries by the covid-19on November 22, 2020, we findthat all stock markets are negatively and significantly affected by the covid-19 outbreak in the short term but not in the long term and that this impact has bidirectional spillover effects between MENA countries and Asian, European, and American countries. However, there is no evidence that these countries' stock markets were affected by the covid-19 more negatively than it does the global average.