Modelling volatility effects between stock, oil, gold and forex markets: Evidence from India

Although several studies on the integration of diverse stock markets have been conducted in the financial literature, most of them have focused on the integration and volatility spillovers across established stock markets. The present study explores the dynamics of integration and volatility spillover across gold, oil, forex, and stock markets during four significant events in India: the pre-changed government regime, the post-changed government regime, the post-Brexit referendum date, and the COVID era. Daily data from 2010 to 2022 is divided into four categories using the Chow test. This is done to examine if these events' financial turmoil affects market interconnectivity. The unit root test determines data stationarity. The ARCH LM test examines series volatility clustering, and the BEKK GARCH test examines market volatility spillover. Results indicate that gold cannot be considered a hedge or safe haven. Secondly, market interconnectedness increased during the crisis period. Third, domestic political and geopolitical conditions globally do not increase the scale of spillover amongst financial assets, though they impact the spillover's magnitude. The results of this study have several important implications for portfolio diversification and risk management. © Varsha Ingalhalli, Prachi Kolamker, 2023.

Tail-risk interconnectedness in the Chinese insurance sector

We investigate tail-risk interconnectedness in the Chinese insurance sector by proposing downside and upside tail-risk spillover networks before and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The constructed networks allow us to capture marginal tail losses and time-varying tail-risk spillover effects. To identify the tail-risk transmission mechanism, we analyze network metrics. We find that tail-risk interconnectedness increased after the pandemic, showing that the risk level of the insurance sector has risen. Moreover, we use predictive panel regressions to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on tail-risk interconnectedness. We find that insurers' size, liability-to-asset ratio, equity ratio, and book value per share are common factors that affect downside and upside tail-risk interconnectedness.

International Listening Posts global report summary: the world at the dawn of 2022 … let's wake up

In this third year of the global Covid-19 pandemic, we are in touch with the tragedy of life, our fear of extinction, and the anxieties associated with the regression of human civilisation. Fatigue and exhaustion, coupled with existential burnout and profound sadness is apparent in all thirteen global reports. Covid has interrupted our sense of personal continuity and omnipotence, confronting us with our vulnerabilities and exigencies, fuelled by our failed economic, political, and social models. The weakening of shared values, fragmentation of relations, increasing aggression, and social chaos augment divisions and splitting. As we connect with inequality and privilege, some experience guilt and discomfort. Many are awakening to the interconnectedness of all things, and our individual and collective responsibilities. We need credible and reliable leadership to rebuild trust, and responsible, functioning political authorities and institutions to help foster belonging, protection, and agency. We are struggling to think enough, care enough, and act enough. "Let's wake up” to the available resources within us and externally, rediscovering positive energies and the courage to live with contradictions, engaging our "inoculated selves against seeing injustices” and acting responsibly towards our common home and the common good. Will we succeed? © 2022,Organisational and Social Dynamics.All Rights Reserved.

Eco-anxiety and pandemic distress: Psychological perspectives on resilience and interconnectedness

Through much of 2020 and into 2021, nations throughout the world locked down because of the COVID- 19 pandemic. Before then, the most pressing global anxiety for many people was climate anxiety. However, these phenomena are in many ways interconnected. Many of the elements in the global economic and logistical systems cause both ecological problems and vulnerability to pandemics. When pandemics happen, they influence ecological problems. In turn, ecological dynamics shape pandemics. This book focuses on deeper aspect of interconnectedness: the psychological and social dimensions of both pandemics and the ecological crisis. The chapters that follow explore various ways in which pandemics and the ecological crisis threaten health and well-being. The main focus is on humans, but these phenomena also affect other creatures and ecosystems, indeed the whole planetary ecosystem. The book examines both coronavirus anxiety and climate anxiety as part of the broader categories of eco-anxiety. "Eco-anxiety" is the general term for anxiety caused by all kinds of ecological problems, while "climate anxiety" refers especially to those forms of eco-anxiety that are significantly shaped by climate change. In historical perspective, eco-anxiety, climate anxiety, and coronavirus anxiety are all instances of global factors causing anxiety, whether or not there are already significant physical impacts. These have been called "macrosocial worries", and they could also be called global anxieties. The book explicates various dimensions of coronavirus anxiety and climate anxiety by comparing their occurrence and phases. The chapters explore climate anxiety, coronavirus anxiety, and the various ways in which people and societies can better cope with them. Coping is closely connected with resilience, the ability to maintain functioning in the midst of changing circumstances. We live in unusual times, with pandemics and vast ecological threats, but these crises have also sparked new understanding about the need for connection and resilience. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Effects of global shocks on the evolution of an interconnected world

As the world grows more interconnected through the flows of people, goods, and information, many challenges are becoming more difficult to address since human needs are increasingly being met through global supply chains. Global shocks (e.g., war, economic recession, pandemic) can severely disrupt these interconnections and generate cascading consequences across local to global scales. To comprehensively evaluate these consequences, it is crucial to use integrated frameworks that consider multiple interconnections and flows among coupled human and natural systems. Here we use the framework of metacoupling (human–nature interactions within as well as across adjacent and distant systems) to illustrate the effects of major global shocks on the evolution of global interconnectedness between the early 1900s and the 2010s. Based on these results we make a few actionable recommendations to reduce the negative impacts of an ongoing global shock, the COVID-19 pandemic, to promote global sustainability. © 2022, The Author(s) under exclusive licence to Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

The impact of COVID-19 on the tourism and hospitality Industry: Evidence from international stock markets

COVID-19 seriously affects the tourism and hospitality industry. In this study, we investigate the behavior of 40 tourism and hospitality stock market indices worldwide from two perspectives. First, empowered by the Granger causality test and network analysis, we test the spillover effects among these stock markets and find that the dynamics of interconnectedness network structures differ significantly in the pre-pandemic and in-pandemic periods. Second, we employ econometric models to explore how the influence of COVID-19 on these stock markets varies by considering the interconnectedness structure, the government response stringency index, and other country-level characteristics. We find that the interconnectedness structure significantly and robustly affects stock returns in the tourism and hospitality markets. Our investigation provides a better understanding of the impact of COVID-19 on tourism and hospitality industry. © 2022 Elsevier Inc.

What can we learn about repurchase programmes and systemic risk? Evidence from US banks during financial turmoil

This paper contributes to the debate on systemic risk by measuring and comparing systemic risk and interconnectedness when banks repurchase shares during financial turmoil. It assesses the extent to which buyback programmes within banks contribute to systemic risk, relying on several measures of systemic risk and connectedness in a sample of 112 US banks during both a tranquil and an unstable period. Empirical results reveal remarkable increases in systemic risk in repurchasing banks compared to non-repurchasing banks and they are more exposed to it in difficult periods such as the European debt crisis and COVID-19. Banks that repurchased shares strengthened indirect links during systemic events and are potentially riskier. The results also classify and rank banks in terms of systemic risk involvement and connectedness and contribute to the identification of systematically important banks. © Henry Stewart Publications 1752-8887 (2023).

The impact of COVID-19 on the tourism and hospitality Industry: Evidence from international stock markets

COVID-19 seriously affects the tourism and hospitality industry. In this study, we investigate the behavior of 40 tourism and hospitality stock market indices worldwide from two perspectives. First, empowered by the Granger causality test and network analysis, we test the spillover effects among these stock markets and find that the dynamics of interconnectedness network structures differ significantly in the pre-pandemic and in-pandemic periods. Second, we employ econometric models to explore how the influence of COVID-19 on these stock markets varies by considering the interconnectedness structure, the government response stringency index, and other country-level characteristics. We find that the interconnectedness structure significantly and robustly affects stock returns in the tourism and hospitality markets. Our investigation provides a better understanding of the impact of COVID-19 on tourism and hospitality industry.

A Network Analysis of Return Connectedness in Financial Stability: Insights into Disease and Economic Policy Uncertainties

This paper studies how return connectedness exhibits potential linkages among 17 economies over a 20-year period starting in 2001. We obtained three main results by employing the dynamic connectedness approach, which is based on vector auto-regression (VAR), to calculate generalized forecast error decompositions. First, although the financial crisis (2007-2008) experienced a high level of connectedness, the spillover index spiked during the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak. Second, the "return shock sender" is a community of countries that includes the United States, Australia, and European countries, while Vietnam is immune to financial linkages. Third, we discovered the predictive power of U.S. economic policy uncertainty and disease fear with market volatility for the Vietnamese return connectedness. As a result, our research identifies a range of relevant policies to mitigate spillover risks in the context of financial stability.

Asia’s financial interconnectedness: Evolution, implications, and insights from past crises

Past crisis episodes have illustrated the interplay of macroeconomic and financial conditions, including the presence of harmful macrofinancial feedback effects. Meanwhile, financial markets have become increasingly connected and economic and financial cycles more synchronized over time. Against the backdrop of past financial crises and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we document and analyze trends in Asia’s financial interconnectedness over the past 3 decades, as well as its possible role in predicting financial crises. Employing a vector-autoregressive model and a panel probit regression, we find that financial interconnectedness increased across Asia and the Pacific, being particularly pronounced during past crises, including the present COVID-19 pandemic. We also find that increased interconnectedness is strongly and positively associated with the probability of crisis onset.

Performances of Islamic and conventional equities during the global health crisis: Time-frequency analysis of BRICS+T markets

This study investigates the dynamic linkages and spillover effect between emerging economies (BRICS and Turkey), focusing on global crises, notably the COVID-19 pandemic. The study uses daily frequency data covering the period from 2002M5 to 2021M03. For the methodology, the paper employs Wavelet Coherence for multiresolution time-frequency analysis in addition to the frameworks of Diebold-Yilmaz Connectedness Index (DY12) and Barunik-Krehlik Frequency Connectedness Index (BK18). The empirical results reveal that the stock market comovements among sample markets are non-monotonous and depend on the time and frequency of returns. Significant correlations among the sample countries and a spike in overall spillover are also evident at the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic or the Global Health Crisis (GHC). China, Brazil, Russia, and Turkey with all the other markets, experienced the weakest links during the GHC. Brazil, Russia, and South Africa act consistently (across different horizons) as net transmitters, whereas India, China, and Turkey perform as net receivers. Islamic equities are more likely to ?give? and less prone to ?receive? than conventional equities. Compared to the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), the GHC effect is more severe but short-lived. The findings of this study are helpful to policymakers and diverse investors when making portfolio diversification decisions.

Interconnectedness Is Associated with a Greater Sense of Civic Duty and Collective Action Participation through Transcendental Awareness and Compassion during COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has a unprecedented impact on the way individuals make sense of the interconnected nature of themselves in relation to the world. This study investigated the mediating role of transcendental awareness and compassion in the association of interconnectedness with a sense of civic duty and collective action participation during COVID-19 using a longitudinal design. A total of 336 young adult participants were recruited at baseline and were asked to complete measures of interconnectedness, transcendental awareness, compassion, civic duty, and collective action participation at three time points over a 6-month period. Path analysis was used to test the hypothesized mediation model. The results showed that compassion fully mediated the positive association between interconnectedness and collective action participation and partially mediated the positive association between interconnectedness and civic duty. Transcendental awareness also partially mediated the positive association between interconnectedness and civic duty but not collective action participation. This study highlighted the potential of interconnectedness in promoting civic duty and engagement in collective action through transcendental awareness and compassion during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Covid-19 global pandemic, workplace spirituality and the rise of spirituality-driven organisations in the post-digital era

Purpose>Despite the growing importance of workplace spirituality, organisations have been reluctant to integrate spirituality into their workplaces;this paper discusses how to integrate spirituality into the workplace.Design/methodology/approach>This is a theoretical paper that builds its arguments on the synthesis of workplace spirituality and contemporary management paradigms.Findings>The study argues that workplace spirituality is an extremely important driving force for the sustainable and healthy growth of any organisation;however, infusing workplace spirituality into companies in the industrial and digital eras would be a futile effort, as industrial organisations are built on an ethos highly incongruent with spiritual principles. Therefore, in the post-digital era, spirituality-driven organisations (SDOs) will emerge, marking the beginning of a true “spiritual paradigm” for business and human society at large. The study also elaborates on the characteristics of the post-digital era and the nature of SDOs.Originality/value>Workplace spirituality has been a research topic for years but has never gained sufficient momentum. The Covid-19 global pandemic has made workplace spirituality a more pertinent issue on corporate agendas. Therefore, this paper provides the theoretical foundation to embed workplace spirituality in contemporary management thoughts and practices.

We're all in this together: Listen, connect, and collaborate

One of the things we've learned about from the COVID-19 pandemic is the interconnectedness of all life on the planet-human life and animal life, all of us around the world. For us to be safe, we must all be safe, and the air we breathe and water we drink must also be safe. So, it's in every person's self-interest to start by taking care of ourselves and our children and then think about how to reach out and connect to diverse others in creating a safer world for us all. This chapter emphasizes how listening to, connecting with, and collaborating with others enriches our life and our child's. Participating in making the world a little bit better not only supports our wellbeing in a number of ways, but also, the healthier our community, our country, and our planet, the greater the chances are that we and our child will thrive. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

HeartMath as an Integrative, Personal, Social, and Global Healthcare System.

COVID-19 is a recent major event, adding to planet Earth's contexts of chaos, crime, injustice, illness, and violence. The HeartMath system has produced research evidence for scientific interventions that alter contexts characterized by chaos and stress, promoting health, coherence, and interconnectedness. This study provides an updated overview of HeartMath as an interdisciplinary, scientific, coherent, integral heart-based healthcare system, operated locally through various initiatives and globally through the Global Coherence Initiative. The HeartMath approach integrates ancient and contemporary, indigenous and mainstream, popular and folk, Eastern, Western, and African forms of healing. The HeartMath interdisciplinary, personal, social, and global vision and mission have considerable theoretical and practical potential for promoting planetary health, education, and development.

The Structure of Social Networks and Its Link to Higher Education Students' Socio-Emotional Loneliness During COVID-19.

Lonely students typically underperform academically. According to several studies, the COVID-19 pandemic is an important risk factor for increases in loneliness, as the contact restrictions and the switch to mainly online classes potentially burden the students. The previously familiar academic environment (campus), as well as the exchange with peers and lecturers on site, were no longer made available. In our cross-sectional study, we examine factors that could potentially counteract the development of higher education student loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic from a social network perspective. During the semester, N = 283 students from across all institutional faculties of a German comprehensive university took part in an online survey. We surveyed their social and emotional experiences of loneliness, their self-reported digital information-sharing behavior, and their current egocentric networks. Here, we distinguished between close online contacts (i.e., mainly online exchanges) and close offline contacts (i.e., mainly in-person face-to-face exchanges). In addition, we derived the interconnectedness (i.e., the densities of the egocentric networks) and heterogeneity (operationalized with the entropy) of students' contacts. To obtain the latter, we used a novel two-step method combining t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE) and cluster analysis. We explored the associations of the aforementioned predictors (i.e., information-sharing behavior, number of online and offline contacts, as well as interconnectedness and heterogeneity of the close contacts network) on social and emotional loneliness separately using two hierarchical multiple linear regression models. Our results suggest that social loneliness is strongly related to digital information-sharing behavior and the network structure of close contacts. In particular, high information-sharing behavior, high number of close contacts (whether offline or online), a highly interconnected network, and a homogeneous structure of close contacts were associated with low social loneliness. Emotional loneliness, on the other hand, was mainly related to network homogeneity, in the sense that students with homogeneous close contacts networks experienced low emotional loneliness. Overall, our study highlights the central role of students' close social network on feelings of loneliness in the context of COVID-19 restrictions. Limitations and implications are discussed.

Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) as a System-Level Infectious Disease With Distinct Sex Disparities.

The current global pandemic of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoronaVirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causing COVID-19, has infected millions of people and continues to pose a threat to many more. Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2) is an important player of the Renin-Angiotensin System (RAS) expressed on the surface of the lung, heart, kidney, neurons, and endothelial cells, which mediates SARS-CoV-2 entry into the host cells. The cytokine storms of COVID-19 arise from the large recruitment of immune cells because of the dis-synchronized hyperactive immune system, lead to many abnormalities including hyper-inflammation, endotheliopathy, and hypercoagulability that produce multi-organ dysfunction and increased the risk of arterial and venous thrombosis resulting in more severe illness and mortality. We discuss the aberrated interconnectedness and forthcoming crosstalks between immunity, the endothelium, and coagulation, as well as how sex disparities affect the severity and outcome of COVID-19 and harm men especially. Further, our conceptual framework may help to explain why persistent symptoms, such as reduced physical fitness and fatigue during long COVID, may be rooted in the clotting system.

In search of safe haven assets during COVID-19 pandemic: An empirical analysis of different investor types.

This study assesses the role of gold, crude oil and cryptocurrency as a safe haven for traditional, sustainable, and Islamic investors during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Using Wavelet coherence analysis and spillover index methodologies in bivariate and multivariate settings, this study examines the correlation of these assets for different investment horizons. The findings suggest that gold, oil and Bitcoin exhibited low coherency with each stock index across almost all considered investment horizons until the onset of the COVID-19. Conversely, with the outbreak of the pandemic, the return spillover is more intense across financial assets, and a significant pairwise return connectedness between each equity index and hedging asset is observed. Hence, gold, oil, and Bitcoin do not exhibit safe-haven characteristics. However, by decomposing the time-varying co-movements into different investment horizons, we find that total and pairwise connectedness among the assets are primarily driven by a higher-frequency band (up to 4 days). It indicates that investors have diversification opportunities with gold, oil, and Bitcoin at longer horizons. The results are robust over different types of equity investors (traditional, sustainable, and Islamic) and various investment horizons.

COVID-19 and the liquidity network.

We investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on liquidity interlinkages of US industry groups. We employ a lead-lag liquidity network method that allows us to analyse liquidity interrelationships beyond contemporaneous spillover effects. We document that sectors differ in their liquidity interactions during the pre-COVID period, with some sectors more interlinked than others. We also document that the crisis induced by COVID had a significant effect on the liquidity network, with all sectors becoming more interconnected relative to the pre-COVID period. The effect varies across industries, with the utilities sector being the most affected, and telecommunication services the least.