Bubble contagion effect between the main precious metals

Purpose: This study examines the extent to which gold and silver bubbles are correlated and which metal's bubble spills over to the other. In addition, the overlap in bubble-like episodes for the two metals is demonstrated and the influence of crises (global financial crises, European debt crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic) on the development of these episodes is compared. Design/methodology/approach: This study proposes a two-step approach. In the first step, price bubbles are identified based on the backward sup augmented Dickey–Fuller of Phillips et al. (2015a, 2015b) and modified by Phillips and Shi (2018). In the second step, the correlation in the contagion effect of the bubbles between the two precious metal prices is measured using a nonparametric regression with a time-varying coefficient approach developed by Greenaway-McGrevy and Phillips (2016). Findings: The findings suggest that the safe-haven property of gold and silver during financial market turbulence induces excessive price increases beyond their fundamental values. Furthermore, the results indicate that bubbles are contagious among precious metal markets and flow mainly from gold to silver;these findings are associated with the period after 2005, particularly during the global financial crisis. A contagious bubble effect is not found between gold and silver during the coronavirus disease 2020 pandemic. Practical implications: The results suggest that financial market participants should consider portfolio weights in precious markets in light of the bubble correlation between gold and silver, especially during crises. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that explores the correlation of bubble-like episodes between gold and silver. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Does bank income diversification affect systemic risk: New evidence from dual banking systems

In this article, we examine the influence of income diversification on systemic risk, using quarterly data from 42 publicly traded banks operating across six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries over the period from January 2008 to December 2020. Our main finding is that diversification decreases systemic risk, and such effect is stronger in Islamic banks compared to their conventional counterparts. We also find that the COVID-19 pandemic equally affected Islamic and conventional banks. These findings are robust to various measures of diversification and systemic risk. © 2022

Bubble contagion effect between the main precious metals

Purpose: This study examines the extent to which gold and silver bubbles are correlated and which metal’s bubble spills over to the other. In addition, the overlap in bubble-like episodes for the two metals is demonstrated and the influence of crises (global financial crises, European debt crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic) on the development of these episodes is compared. Design/methodology/approach: This study proposes a two-step approach. In the first step, price bubbles are identified based on the backward sup augmented Dickey–Fuller of Phillips et al. (2015a, 2015b) and modified by Phillips and Shi (2018). In the second step, the correlation in the contagion effect of the bubbles between the two precious metal prices is measured using a nonparametric regression with a time-varying coefficient approach developed by Greenaway-McGrevy and Phillips (2016). Findings: The findings suggest that the safe-haven property of gold and silver during financial market turbulence induces excessive price increases beyond their fundamental values. Furthermore, the results indicate that bubbles are contagious among precious metal markets and flow mainly from gold to silver;these findings are associated with the period after 2005, particularly during the global financial crisis. A contagious bubble effect is not found between gold and silver during the coronavirus disease 2020 pandemic. Practical implications: The results suggest that financial market participants should consider portfolio weights in precious markets in light of the bubble correlation between gold and silver, especially during crises. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that explores the correlation of bubble-like episodes between gold and silver. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Have returns and volatilities for financial assets responded to implied volatility during the COVID-19 pandemic?

This paper uses transfer entropy measures to analyze the information sharing between the option implied volatility, the realized volatility and the returns of six financial assets during the COVID-19 pandemic. The measures indicate increases in the information transmissions during the pandemic which are uniform across the volatilities and the returns of all assets. In these transmissions, the option implied volatilities are found to play the central role, particularly in the returns of the assets as opposed to its realized volatilities. Thus, we may conclude that the predictability of the volatilities derived from option pricing models has improved during the pandemic and that this improvement has reduced the uncertainty of the future returns and the volatilities, albeit to a lower extent. These findings bear implications for constructing models that predict volatilities and returns during crises periods. © 2021 Elsevier B.V.