“…Interestingly, the COVID-19 × COVID_RISK coefficient is double that of PRE_COVID-19 × COVID_RISK (−0.812 vs. −0.497, respectively), suggesting that selling by insiders in firms that are more exposed to COVID-19 is stronger during the 30 days after the first confirmed COVID-19 case in the US. These findings are consistent with the conjecture that risk-averse corporate insiders tend to hedge when firm risk exposure increases ( Anderson & Puleo, 2020 ; Cheng & Lo, 2006 ; Shen, Hui, & Fan, 2021 ; Shen, Wang, & Zhou, 2021 ), further confirming our primary finding of insiders' selling during the COVID-19 outbreaks as a firm's COVID-19 risk increases.…”