- Hue Hwa Au Yong: Department of Banking and Finance, Monash Business School, Monash University, Australia.
- Elaine Laing: Trinity Business School, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
We examine the U.S. stock market reaction to the World Health Organization's announcement declaring COVID-19 a global health emergency, with a focus on firms' international exposure. We find that while international exposure through foreign sales, foreign assets, imports and exports are significant and negatively associated with standardized cumulative abnormal returns in the short-run, the effect reverses in the long-run. In the long-run, internationalization contributes to multinational firms being more resilient to economic shocks caused by COVID-19.