Abstract
We use the COVID-19 stringency index to investigate the relationship among COVID-19 government restriction policy, COVID-19 vaccination and stock markets. We find that the impact of the change rate of COVID-19 stringency index on stock returns turns from significant in the pre-vaccination period to insignificant in the post-vaccination period. Bad news from COVID-19 restriction policy cause more stock volatilities than good news. The advent of COVID-19 vaccination weakens the linkage of COVID-19 stringency index and stock market, while COVID-19 stringency index only plays a partially mediate role in the correlation between COVID-19 cumulative vaccination rate and stock market performance.