Do Automated Market Makers in DeFi Ecosystem Exhibit Time-Varying Connectedness during Stressed Events?

We investigate the connectedness of automated market makers (AMM) that play a pivotal role in liquidity and ease of operations in the decentralized exchange (DEX). By applying the TVP-VAR model, our findings show higher level of connectivity during periods of turmoil (such as Delta, Omicron variants of SARS-Covid, and the Russia Ukraine conflict). Furthermore, risk transmission/reception is found to be independent of the platform on which they typically run (Ethereum based AMMs were both emitters as well as receivers). Pancake (a Binance based AMM) and Perpetual Protocol (Ethereum based AMM) emerged as moderate to high receivers of risk transmission, whereas all of the other AMMs, including Ethereum, were found to be risk emitters at varying degrees. We argue that AMMs typically depend on the underlying smart contracts. If the contract is flexible, AMMs can vary (either receiver or emitter), otherwise AMMs behave in tandem. © 2023 by the authors.

Diversification benefits of NFTs for conventional asset investors: Evidence from CoVaR with higher moments and optimal hedge ratios

This study investigates the risk and returns on one of the newest digital asset classes instruments, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), by accounting for tail dependence of higher-order moments and portfolio characteristics. We used a wide range of asset classes, encompassing equites, fixed income securities, and commodities, and document the desirable hedging and portfolio attributes of NFTs by employing Conditional Value-at-Risk (CoVaR) and ∆CoVaRs with various copula functions. We found that NFTs exhibit beneficial investment and hedging attributes under all market conditions, including the Covid-19 pandemic. Our findings have important implications for investors, risk managers, and regulators. © 2023 Elsevier B.V.

Patterns of unconventional monetary policy spillovers during a systemic crisis

We examine whether the COVID-19 pandemic-induced systemic shocks cause a change in the dynamics of monetary policy spillovers among developed economies. Results from our analysis under the time-varying parameter vector autoregressive model indicate that: (i) variations in monetary policy actions are explained by monetary policy spillovers;(ii) shocks from the COVID-19 pandemic rocketed monetary policy spillovers;(iii) the Euro area and the US chiefly propagate monetary policy shocks to their counterpart developed economies;and (iv) New Zealand and Japan endure the highest monetary policy shocks. Our results evidence the need for synchronized monetary policy actions during systemic crises. © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Flights-to-quality from EM Bonds to safe-haven US Treasury Securities: A time-frequency Analysis

We study 2001–2020 flight-to-quality episodes encompassing two planetary-scale crises: the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2007–2008 and the coronavirus-triggered global meltdown. We focus on time-frequency lead-lag nexuses between holding emerging market (EM) debt and investing in relatively risk-free US Treasuries. Wavelet coherency along with the phase-difference approach is used. Our results reveal varying lead-lag patterns and low-coherence zones between EM bonds and US Treasuries, which imply the existence of appealing diversification attributes. The flights-to-quality during the crisis periods, such as the GFC and COVID-19 pandemic, emphasize the safe-haven characteristics of US Treasures. They also evidence that the post-Covid tightening of credit spreads to the pre-crisis levels is faster than the post-GFC recovery. We demonstrate that for EM debt investors, the US Treasury market allows for dynamic risk mitigation strategies during both global crises. © 2022 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Connectedness between the COVID-19 related media coverage and Islamic equities: The role of economic policy uncertainty

This paper examines the static and dynamic return and volatility connectedness among Islamic equity indices and a Coronavirus coverage index over the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic crisis. We employ ten major sectoral equity indices covering main economic sectors and the Coronavirus media coverage index (MCI) and apply the time-varying parameter vector autoregressive methodology (TVP-VAR). The results show a high degree of connectedness between the return and volatility series of the different sectoral indices. Moreover, the information transmission between these indices and the media coverage index shows that Islamic equities are net receivers of shocks from the coronavirus MCI. Additionally, we investigate the causality between the different connectedness measures and the Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU). Our results indicate that EPU has predictive power on the net connectedness between the Islamic sectoral equities and the Coronavirus MCI. © 2022 Elsevier B.V.

Return and volatility connectedness of the non-fungible tokens segments

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have garnered attention from investors and the general public. This pioneering study analyzes the connectedness of five NFT segments by employing the TVP-VAR based connectedness approach of Antonakakis et al. (2020) to identify the transmitter and receivers of spillover for both return and volatility of NFT segments. Our results show that Utility NFTs are the main transmitter of spillover, whereas the collectible NFTs are the main recipient of spillover for both return and volatility. Our findings have important implications for both investors and policy makers. (c) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Assessment of Severity of Anxiety and Depression in Covid-19 Patients Admitted to Rawalpindi Medical University and Allied Hospitals Rawalpindi Pakistan

Objective: To determine the prevalence of anxiety and depression among the COVID-19 infected patients. Study design: Descriptive cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Rawalpindi Medical University and Allied Hospitals Covid designated wards from 1stApril 2019 and 30thJune 2020 Methodology: Hundred patients of either gender presented with Covid-19 infection were enrolled. Detailed demographics and complete medical examination was done after taking informed written consent. Those patients who fulfil the clinical criteria Hamilton rating scale for anxiety (HAMA) and Hamilton rating scale for depression (HRSD) were applied to assess the severity of anxiety and/or depression. Result(s): There were 69 (69%) males and 31 (31%) females. Eighty two (82%) patients fall in the age range of 21 to 50 years with the mean of 38 years. There is high level of anxiety as well as depression among admitted patients suffering from COVID-19. Seventy five (75%) patients suffered from depression and 72 (72%) of patients suffered from anxiety ranging from mild to severe. Conclusion(s): It is concluded that patients suffering from Covid-19 disease had high prevalence of depression and anxiety. Copyright © 2022 Lahore Medical And Dental College. All rights reserved.

Analysis of the dynamic return and volatility connectedness for non-ferrous industrial metals during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the dynamic return and volatility connectedness for six major industrial metals (tin, lead, nickel, zinc, copper and aluminium) and the coronavirus media coverage index (MCI). Design/methodology/approach: To that purpose, this study applies the fresh time-varying parameter vector autoregression methodology (TVP–VAR model) during the sample period between 2 January, 2020, and 16 April, 2021, that is, covering the three waves of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Findings: This study’s results show interesting findings. First, dynamic total return and volatility connectedness changes over time, highlighting a significant increase during the third wave of the pandemic. Second, the MCI index is a leading net transmitter in terms of return and volatility at the introduction of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus crisis. Third, this study clearly distinguishes two profiles among industrial metals: copper and tin/zinc as net transmitters and lead and aluminium as net receivers. Finally, the most relevant differences between them are concentrated not only at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic (first wave) but also during the second and third waves of the coronavirus outbreak. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research that explores the dynamic return and volatility connectedness in the industrial metal market, applying the TVP–VAR methodology during the first waves of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Flights-to-quality from EM Bonds to safe-haven US Treasury Securities: A time-frequency Analysis

We study 2001–2020 flight-to-quality episodes encompassing two planetary-scale crises: the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2007–2008 and the coronavirus-triggered global meltdown. We focus on time-frequency lead-lag nexuses between holding emerging market (EM) debt and investing in relatively risk-free US Treasuries. Wavelet coherency along with the phase-difference approach is used. Our results reveal varying lead-lag patterns and low-coherence zones between EM bonds and US Treasuries, which imply the existence of appealing diversification attributes. The flights-to-quality during the crisis periods, such as the GFC and COVID-19 pandemic, emphasize the safe-haven characteristics of US Treasures. They also evidence that the post-Covid tightening of credit spreads to the pre-crisis levels is faster than the post-GFC recovery. We demonstrate that for EM debt investors, the US Treasury market allows for dynamic risk mitigation strategies during both global crises. © 2022 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Revisiting the safe haven role of Gold across time and frequencies during the COVID-19 pandemic

This research empirically evaluates the potential diversification benefits of Gold during the COVID-19 pandemic period, when including it in equity-based asset allocation strategies. This study proposes minimum VaR portfolios, with monthly rebalance and different wavelet scales (short-run, mid-run and long-run), doing both an in-sample and out-of-sample analysis. We find much more unstable weights as the frequency of the decomposition becomes lower, and strong evidence of the outperformance of the mid-run decompositions over the rest of active management strategies and the passive management of buy and hold the variety of single equity indices. Thus, we may shed some light on the role of Gold as a safe haven when properly filtering aggregated data.

Infectious disease (COVID-19)-related uncertainty and the safe-haven features of bonds markets

Purpose: This study aims to examine the hedge, diversifier and safe-haven properties of bonds against infectious disease-related equity market volatility (IDEMV), like COVID-19. Design/methodology/approach: The authors apply wavelet coherence methodology on the daily data of IDEMV and bond market (US, UK, Japan, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, Sweden, China and Europe) indices from 1 January 2000 to 14 February 2021. Findings: The results show no significant co-movement between these bond indices and IDEMV, thus confirming that they serve as a hedge against IDEMV. However, during the turbulent period like COVID-19, the authors find that the US, UK, Japan, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, Sweden, China and European bond markets act as safe-haven against IDEMV, whereas the UK, US, Japan and Canadian bond markets demonstrate an in-phase and positive co-movement with IDEMV during COVID-19, suggesting their role as a diversifier. Research limitations/implications: The study findings are important for investors and portfolio managers regarding risk management, portfolio diversification and investment strategies. Originality/value: The authors contribute to the fast growing body of work on the financial impacts of COVID-19 as well as to ongoing consideration of whether a bond is a safe-haven investment. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Astonishing insights: emerging market debt spreads throughout the pandemic

We investigate how Covid-19 affects the emerging market (EM) bonds by analysing, on a standalone basis, investment grade (IG) and high yield (HY) debt per type of issuer. We document evidence that the option-adjusted spreads (OAS) of the IG and HY financials have recovered to the pre-Covid levels by the end of year 2020, while for the HY sovereigns and corporates the OAS remain twice as wide as before the pandemic. The weight of the liquidity component in the OAS for the IG sovereigns has climbed to astonishing 45%. Our results are potentially useful for investors, traders, risk managers and regulators.

Oil price shocks and the return and volatility spillover between industrial and precious metals star

This study explores the dynamic return and volatility connectedness for some dominant industrial (Aluminium, Copper, Lead, Nickel, Tin, and Zinc) and precious metals (Gold, Palladium, Platinum, Silver) to crude oil shocks (risk, demand, and supply) during the sample period between January 2, 2009 and July 17, 2020. Our findings indicate that, demand shocks and risk shocks are the dominant receiver (transmitter) of shocks from (to) for metal returns. Second, we document the time-varying nature of both total return and volatility connectedness. Third, both net directional return and volatility connectedness show that some metals such as Tin, Gold and, even, Nickel, Lead and Aluminium appear as net transmitters, at least in some intervals of the sample period analysed. On the other hand, other industrial and precious metal markets show a net receiver profile, such as Copper, Zinc and Platinum, among others. Lastly, we find more differences between the net dynamic connectedness of the metal markets analysed in terms of return than volatility. The net directional volatility connectedness increases sizably during the global crisis due to the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. (c) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Return and volatility transmission between emerging markets and US debt throughout the pandemic crisis

In this study, we investigate the return and volatility spillovers between emerging markets and US government bonds during the Covid-19-triggered pandemic by accounting for the market sentiment captured by the media coverage index. To study the dynamic spillovers, we use a TVP-VAR approach. Our results show a significant increase in the dynamic connectedness between media coverage, emerging market bonds, and US bonds, as well as between the respective volatilities, especially during the early phases of the Covid-19 pandemic, with the highest values observed in March 2020. The emerging market bonds appear to be net transmitters to the system and lead the system;whereas, the US bond market is the net receiver. These results show that, during the pandemic, the US bond market is less vulnerable and more resilient to changes in market sentiment vis-`a-vis the fixed-income markets of the developing countries.

Oil shocks and equity markets: The case of GCC and BRICS economies

This study analyzes the relationship between oil shocks and the equity markets of a group of world major oil producers and consumers encompassing both the GCC and BRICS economies. We employ a novel framework to decompose the oil shocks (demand, supply, and risk shocks) into their daily components. Subsequently, we also employ a network connectedness approach to investigate the static and time-varying connectedness of these shocks with equity markets. Our sample period ranges from January 6, 2005, to July 17, 2020. Empirical results show a medium connectedness between examined equity markets and oil shocks, in terms of returns and volatility, with an unpreceded level during the recent COVID-19 crisis. Furthermore, the volatility of oil-exporting countries contributes more to the volatility connectedness. Demand shock and risk shock are the main contributors to the connectedness. © 2021 Elsevier B.V.