Table 9.

Alternative Operationalization of Treatment – Treatment Based on Industry Sectors (NACE) and Probit analysis. The analysis covers 62 bi-monthly periods from 01/01/2018 to 07/31/2020 and 126 countries. Treated (2 w) is an indicator that takes the value of 1 for deals that have in their synopsis at least 2 pandemic-related keywords, and 0 otherwise. Treated (3 w) is an indicator that takes the value of 1 for deals that have in their synopsis at least 3 pandemic-related keywords, and 0 otherwise. Sector (top 10) is an indicator that takes the value of 1 for deals from a sector among the top 10 sectors based on proportion of pandemic-related deals of all deals in the sector. Sector (All) is an indicator that takes the value of 1 for deals from a sector with at least one pandemic-related deal, and 0 otherwise. Sectors are defined at NACE 4-digit level. Column (9) shows results of a Probit analysis at the VC-backed firm level on the sub-sample of firms that have a funding deal before the onset of the pandemic. The dependent variable, Funding, is an indicator that takes the value of 1 if the firm receives VC funding after the onset of the pandemic, and 0 otherwise (the firm receives VC funding only during the pre-pandemic period). Treated Firm Level is an indicator that takes the value of 1 if the firm has at least one investment in pandemic-related activities before the onset of the pandemic, and 0 otherwise (all deals for the firm during the pre-pandemic period are non-pandemic). First Case is an indicator that takes the value of 1 for periods after the beginning of the spread of COVID-19 (i.e., after the first confirmed case) in country c, and 0 otherwise. The table reports coefficient estimates followed by standard errors, clustered at country level, in parentheses. ***, **, and * indicate statistical significance at the 1%, 5%, and 10% level, respectively.

	VC invested amount				Number VC transactions				Funding
Dependent Variable	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)	(7)	(8)	(9)
Treated (2 w) × First Case	0.485***				0.059***
	(0.131)				(0.021)
Treated (3 w) × First Case		0.273**				0.040*
		(0.126)				(0.022)
Sector (top 10) × First Case			0.353***				0.048***
			(0.128)				(0.016)
Sector (All) × First Case				−0.068				−0.008
				(0.141)				(0.015)
Treated Firm Level									0.094***
									(0.030)
Observations	15,624	15,624	15,252	15,252	15,624	15,624	15,252	15,252	32,642
Adjusted R-squared	0.674	0.605	0.693	0.664	0.866	0.697	0.832	0.807	0.014
Time Fixed Effects	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Country-Deal Category Fixed Effects	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Country-Deal Category Trend	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Country-Industry Sectors Fixed Effects	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Country-Industry Sector Trend	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Country Fixed Effects	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes