Exploring the Time-varying Connectedness and Contagion Effects among Exchange Rates of BRICS, Energy Commodities, and Volatilities

This paper investigates the total and net directional connectedness of the energy market and currency market amid volatilities (local and international) of BRICS for the period May 7, 2012 to March 31, 2022. The Time-varying parameter Vector Autoregression (TVP-VAR) connectedness approach is specifically employed. We reveal that the average value of the total connectedness index (TCI) is 46.91%, for the specific network of energy commodities, currency rates, and volatilities. Also, from the averaged dynamic connectedness, the global energy commodity index demonstrated the most transmitter of shocks. Conversely, BRICS currency markets (except for Brazilian Rubble) and most implied energy volatilities and realised exchange rate volatilities were net receivers of shocks. Moreover, the total connectivity indices were seen to vary significantly during the study sample period with strong susceptibility to crisis periods, especially, the COVID-19 pandemic. We advocate that most volatilities were consistent net transmitters across time as indicated by the net directional connectedness. The findings imply that in a network of energy commodities, exchange rate, and volatilities, risk minimisation is elated to boost investors' confidence across time.

Quantifying Information Flows among Developed and Emerging Equity Markets

We rely on daily changes in implied volatility indices for the US stock market (VIX), developed markets excluding the US (VXEFA), stock markets in Brazil (VXEWZ), Russia (RVI), India (NIFVIX), China (VXFXI), and the overall emerging market volatility index (VXEEM) to examine the degree of information flows among the markets in the coronavirus pandemic. The study also employs the complete ensemble empirical mode decomposition with adaptive noise (CEEMDAN) to decompose the data into intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). Subsequently, we cluster the IMFs based on their level of frequencies into short-, medium-, and long-term horizons. The analysis draws on the concept of Rényi transfer entropy (RTE) to enable an assessment of linear as well as non-linear and tail-dependence in the markets. The study reports significant information flows from BRIC volatility indices to the overall emerging market volatility index in the short-and medium-terms and vice versa. We also document a mixture of bi-directional and uni-directional flow of high risk information and low risk information emanating from emerging equity markets and from the developed markets. We find that the transmission of high risk information is largely dominated by the developed markets (VIX and VXEFA). In the midst of high degree of contagion, our findings reveal that investors can find minimal benefits by shielding against adverse shocks from the developed markets with a combination of stocks from India and other equities in the emerging markets in the short-term, within 1–15 days. For as low as 1–5 days, the empirical evidence indicates that a portfolio consisting of stocks from Russia and Brazil also offer immunity to shocks from the VXEFA. Our study makes an important empirical contribution to the study of market integration and contagion among emerging markets and developed markets in crisis periods. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Mathematical Problems in Engineering is the property of Hindawi Limited and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Connectedness between Gold and Cryptocurrencies in COVID-19 Pandemic: A Frequency-Dependent Asymmetric and Causality Analysis

We employ a frequency-dependent asymmetric and causality analysis to investigate the connectedness between gold and cryptocurrencies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, the variational mode decomposition-based quantile regression is utilised. Findings from the study divulge that the variational mode functions at the lower quantiles are mostly significant and negative indicating that gold acts as a safe haven, a diversifier at most market conditions with insignificant coefficients, and a hedge at normal market conditions for most cryptocurrencies at various investment horizons. Particularly, hedging benefits mostly occur in the short- and medium-term for Bitcoin and Ripple, as well as Bitcoin and Dogecoin in the long-term with gold. This implies that there is high persistence in the hedging properties of gold with Bitcoin, followed by Ripple. We notice more significant relationship between gold and some cryptocurrencies in the long-term of the COVID-19 pandemic relative to the medium-term emphasising the delayed responses of prices to information. Investors are recommended to be observant and mindful of investing in these markets due to the different dynamics.

Financial sector and economic growth amid external uncertainty shocks: Insights into emerging economies.

The study aims to shed new lights on the lead-lag relationships between the financial sector (RFSI) and economic growth (GDP) in the midst of global economic policy uncertainty (GEPU) shocks for BRICS economies. Hence, the bivariate, partial, and wavelet multiple correlations techniques are employed. From the bivariate analysis, we document positive bi-directional causality between the RFSI and economic growth over the sample period. The partial wavelet reveals that GEPU shocks distort the significance and directional comovements between the RFSI and GDP. Moreover, the outcome from the wavelet multiple cross correlations (WMCC) indicates that the RFSI is a first mover at most time scales for the BRICS economies. This is followed by GEPU which either leads or lags for most scales, especially for South Africa. The impact of GEPU on RFSI and GDP is worst for South Africa in about four cases in the medium-, and long-terms. This signifies that South Africa's financial markets and economic growth are vulnerable to GEPU. However, the impetus for GEPU to drive the comovements between the financial sector and economic activity was less pronounced in the pre-COVID analysis conducted with the WMCC. The study supports both the supply-leading and demand-following hypotheses. Our findings also underscore the need for policymakers, investors and academics alike to incessantly observe the dynamics between finance and growth across time and periodicity while considering adverse shocks from global economic policy uncertainty in tandem.

Modelling the heterogeneous relationship between the crude oil implied volatility index and African stocks in the coronavirus pandemic.

This paper revisited the crude oil - stock market nexus to examine how the oil implied volatility index (a forward-looking and more accurate measure for uncertainty in oil prices) affects stock returns in major Africa's oil-importing (South Africa, Kenya, Mauritius, and Botswana) and oil-exporting (Nigeria, Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco) countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. Quantile regression is employed to examine the heterogeneous relationship at different distributions of stock returns. The study documents evidence to support a negative relationship between the oil implied volatility shocks and stock returns in the selected stock markets, especially in downturns. Findings from this study also reveal that the oil implied volatility shocks can asymmetrically influence Africa's stocks. Specifically, our empirical evidence reveals that positive shocks in the oil implied volatility index play a key role in most of Africa's stock markets in market downturns while negative shocks play a moderate role during benign market conditions in some of Africa's stock markets during the pandemic. More importantly, our findings divulge that investors can find an invaluable shelter with a portfolio of the selected African stocks and oil market securities in the time of the pandemic. The policy implications are further discussed.

Time-frequency domain analysis of investor fear and expectations in stock markets of BRIC economies.

The purpose of this study is to provide insight into the lead-lag relationships between the BRIC stock index and its constituents. In addition, we assess the comovements between the US volatility index (VIX) as a measure of investor uncertainty and fear and stock returns of BRIC economies. Therefore, the bi-wavelet and wavelet multiple correlations approaches are utilised. Findings from the bi-wavelet technique indicate that there are high interdependencies between the BRIC index and its constituents throughout the time-frequency domain. In addition, comovements between the BRIC index and its constituents was positive and significant. Notwithstanding, we find the BRIC index to be the first variable to respond to shocks when all the study variables were considered in the wavelet multiple cross-correlations. Similarly, the stock market of Brazil is the next to respond to shocks. On the other hand, the stock market of Russia lags in the long-term when the BRIC index was excluded from the wavelet multiple cross-correlations. We also find a uni-directional causality between the VIX and the BRIC stocks in the medium-, and long-terms. Specifically, the US VIX significantly drives the BRIC stocks and considered to be negative. Findings from the study imply that global investors can select any of the stock markets in BRIC to allocate their investments due to their strong interdependencies which may facilitate trade and investments. However, portfolio diversification, safe haven or hedge benefits within this region may be minimal due to their high integration with the BRIC index which demonstrates positive significant comovements. The findings present relevant inferences for portfolio diversification, policy decisions, and risk management schemes. It is recommended that investors hedge against volatilities in the BRIC stock markets using the US VIX.

COVID-19 as Information Transmitter to Global Equity Markets: Evidence from CEEMDAN-Based Transfer Entropy Approach

This study provides an analysis of chaotic information transmission from the COVID-19 pandemic to global equity markets in a novel denoised frequency domain entropy framework. The current length of the pandemic data offers the opportunity to examine its role in the asymmetric behaviour patterns of investors according to time horizons and the diversification potentials available to them. We employ the total daily global confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 27 equity indices from December 31, 2019, to April 18, 2021. Our results corroborate the idea that diversification potentials are stronger in the short to medium term. The Global Index (higher risk) and Canada and New Zealand (lower risk) remain at both ends to pair some other equities to offer diversification prospects because of the transmission of information from COVID-19 to the selected equity markets. In addition, we provide the source of these diversification prospects as information flow rather than transmission of shocks, which is common in the literature. Furthermore, our results suggest detailed levels of risk (lower vis-à-vis higher) in the situation where they have been stripped of the noise in the market. The findings allow both investors and policymakers to make informed decisions based on the time horizons since the pandemic communicates different chaotic information with the lapse of time. This is imperative to avoid the negative consequences of the increasing infection rate on global stock markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Mathematical Problems in Engineering is the property of Hindawi Limited and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Economic Policy Uncertainty Linkages among Asian Countries: Evidence from Threshold Cointegration Approach

This paper employs the threshold cointegration methodology to assess the long- and short-run dynamics of asymmetric adjustment between economic policy uncertainty (EPU) of China-India, China-Japan, China-Korea, India-Japan, India-Korea, and Japan-Korea pairs using monthly EPU data ranging from January 1997 to April 2020. The relationship between the EPU pairs is examined in terms of Engle-Granger and threshold cointegrations. The findings provide evidence of long-run threshold cointegration and that the adjustments towards the long-run equilibrium position are asymmetric in the short run for the China-India and India-Japan EPU pairs in M-TAR specification with nonzero threshold values. Also, the results suggest a unidirectional causal relationship between China-India, China-Japan, and India-Korea EPU pairs in the long and short run using the spectral frequency domain causality approach. However, a bidirectional causal relationship between China-Korea, India-Japan, and Japan-Korea pairs exists in the long and short run. Therefore, the findings provide some clues to economic policymakers within the Asian subregion for possible policy uncertainty synergies and spillovers among the Asian countries.