scholarly journals COVID-19 Induced Economic Uncertainty: A Comparison between the United Kingdom and the United States

Ekonomika ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 99 (2) ◽  
pp. 104-115
Author(s):  
Ugur Korkut Pata

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on economic policy uncertainty in the US and the UK. The impact of the increase in COVID-19 cases and deaths in the country and the increase in the number of cases and deaths outside the country may vary. To examine this, the study employs the bootstrap ARDL cointegration approach from March 8, 2020 to May 24, 2020. According to the bootstrap ARDL results, a long-run equilibrium relationship is confirmed for five out of the ten models. The long-term coefficients obtained from the ARDL models suggest that an increase in COVID-19 cases and deaths outside of the UK and the US has a significant effect on economic policy uncertainty. The US is more affected by the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases. The UK, on the other hand, is more negatively affected by the increase in the number of COVID-19 deaths outside the country than the increase in the number of cases. Moreover, another significant finding from the study demonstrates that COVID-19 is a factor of great uncertainty for both countries in the short-term.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ugur Korkut Pata

Abstract The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on economic policy uncertainty in the US and the UK. The impact of the increase in COVID-19 cases and deaths in the country, and the increase in the number of cases and deaths outside the country may vary. To examine this, the study employs bootstrap ARDL cointegration approach from March 8, 2020 to May 24, 2020. According to the bootstrap ARDL results, a long-run equilibrium relationship is confirmed for five out of the 10 models. The long-term coefficients obtained from the ARDL models suggest that an increase in COVID-19 cases and deaths outside of the UK and the US has a significant effect on economic policy uncertainty. The US is more affected by the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases. The UK, on the other hand, is more negatively affected by the increase in the number of COVID-19 deaths outside the country than the increase in the number of cases. Moreover, another important finding from the study demonstrates that COVID-19 is a factor of great uncertainty for both countries in the short-term.


Author(s):  
Paula Moldovan ◽  
Sérgio Lagoa ◽  
Diana Mendes

The world economy has been punctuated by uncertainty as a result of the 2008 subprime crisis, the European sovereign debt crisis, Brexit, and the 2016 US presidential elections, to mention but a few of the reasons. This study explores how the UK real exchange rate reacts to economic policy uncertainty (EPU) shocks using monthly data for the period 1998 to 2020. We contribute to the literature by identifying the long-run and short-run impacts of EPU using a cointegrated ARDL model, and by studying a country that has been through periods of both relatively low and high uncertainty. Results confirm that EPU has an important effect in the long run by depreciating the exchange rate. In addition to urging policymakers and regulators to concentrate on the sometimes difficult task of keeping policy uncertainty to a minimum as a way of sustaining exchange rate stability and thus promoting long-term economic growth, further evidence is provided on exchange rate fundamentals.


2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 509-528
Author(s):  
Prince Mensah Osei ◽  
Anokye Adam

This study uses threshold cointegration technique to ascertain the relationship between United States (US) economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and monetary policy rate (MPR) of each of the four African countries, namely Egypt, Ghana, Namibia and South Africa using monthly data from March 1998 to April 2020. The impact of US EPU on MPR of each country is assessed by examining the linear cointegration, asymmetric cointegration and causal relationships in the frequency domain between the US EPU and MPR of each African country. The findings provide evidence of long-run threshold cointegration and the adjustment mechanisms towards long-run equilibrium are asymmetric in the short run for the MPR models for Ghana, Namibia and South Africa in the M-TAR specification except for Egypt’s MPR model which does not provide evidence of asymmetric adjustment towards the equilibrium position. The bivariate analysis performed in the spectral frequency domain suggests unidirectional causality between US EPU and MPR of each country and that, the US EPU influences the MPR of each country in the long run. The findings provide important guidelines to monetary policy reviewers to take policy stance that would stimulate economic growth amid US policy uncertainties.


2021 ◽  
pp. 27-49
Author(s):  
Dejan Romih ◽  

Brexit was a wake-up call for the UK and the EU. There is a growing body of evidence that the referendum results contributed to an increase in economic policy uncertainty and financial stress (including systemic stress) in the UK. In this chapter, I present the findings of a panel study designed to estimate the impact of economic policy uncertainty and financial stress in the UK on bilateral exports of goods. Using the panel data gravity model of international trade, I found that economic policy uncertainty in the UK negatively affects bilateral exports of goods, which is consistent with my expectations. The results for financial and systemic stress are not statistically significant.


2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 457-476
Author(s):  
Nithya Shankar ◽  
Bill Francis

Purpose The paper aims to investigate the impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) (i.e. uncertainty due to government policies) on fine wine prices. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses the Baker et al. (2016) monthly news-based measure of EPU for the leading wine markets: the USA, the UK, France, Germany and China in conjunction with monthly fine wine pricing data from the London International Vintners Exchange (Liv-ex). The wine sub-indices used are the Liv-ex 500 (Bordeaux), Burgundy 150, Champagne 50, Rhone 100, Italy 100, California 50, Port 50 and Rest of the World 50. The Prais–Winsten and Cochrane–Orcutt regressions are used for our analyses to correct for effects of serial correlation. Time lags are chosen based on the appropriate information criterion. Findings Changes in EPU levels negatively impact changes in the Liv-ex 500 index for all our leading wine markets except France, the Champagne 50 index for the UK and the Burgundy 150 and the Rhone 100 indices for Germany, with the effects being significant for at least up to a quarter before EPU is detected. The authors did not find significant results for the EPU of France. Practical implications The paper aims to provide insights into whether EPU creates opportunities or threats for investors and wineries. Originality/value A forward-looking news-based EPU measure is used to gain insights into how the different Liv-ex sub-indices react to increases in uncertainty centered around government policies across a sample of different countries.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (21) ◽  
pp. 9108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qing Wang ◽  
Kefeng Xiao ◽  
Zhou Lu

This paper aims to examine the effects of economic policy uncertainty (measured by the World Uncertainty Index—WUI) on the level of CO2 emissions in the United States for the period from 1960 to 2016. For this purpose, we consider the unit root test with structural breaks and the autoregressive-distributed lag (ARDL) model. We find that the per capita income promotes CO2 emissions in the long run. Similarly, the WUI measures are positively associated with CO2 emissions in the long run. Energy prices negatively affect CO2 emissions both in the short run and the long run. Possible implications of climate change are also discussed.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
LINGLING QIAN ◽  
YUEXIANG JIANG ◽  
HUAIGANG LONG ◽  
RUOYI SONG

We are the first to explore the effect of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and the COVID-19 pandemic on the correlation between the cryptocurrency index CRIX and the world stock market portfolio, as well as the hedging properties of CRIX. To this end, we mainly apply the dynamic conditional correlation model with mixed data sampling regressions, a threshold vector autoregressive model and the generalized impulse response function. We demonstrate that the correlation is influenced by the uncertainty stance of the economy and behaves differently in low-, medium- and high-uncertainty periods. Most of the abnormal market relations exist in high levels of EPU or during the COVID-19 period, and the impact of global EPU is greater than that of EPU originating in the United States, Europe, Russia and China. Moreover, the CRIX can serve as a hedge asset against the world stock market. The high (low) level of EPU has a significantly positive (negative) effect on the optimal hedge ratio of CRIX, which increases significantly during the COVID-19 period. Our findings have implications for risk management, portfolio allocations and hedging strategies.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seabelo T. Nyawo ◽  
Roscoe Bertrum Van Wyk

This paper investigates the effects of a US economic policy uncertainty shock on Indian macroeconomic variables with a number of Structural VARs. This study models the economic policy uncertainty index as constructed by Baker et al. (2013). The study also uses a set of macroeconomic variables for India such as inflation, industrial production and nominal interest rate. The objective of the study is to identify the potential impacts of economic policy uncertainty shocks from the US economy to the Indian economy. According to the SVARs, a one standard deviation shock to the US economic policy uncertainty leads to a statistically significant decline in the Indian industrial production of -0.294% and in the Indian inflation of -0.032%. India shows to be resistant to US policy uncertainty. Furthermore, the study finds that the contribution of the US economic policy uncertainty on the Indian macroeconomic variables is shown to be significantly larger than the one exerted by the Indian uncertainty shock. 


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 131
Author(s):  
Wannakomol Supachart

The objective of this paper is to analyze the impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) in China, the United States, and Europe, which are influent to the Chinese stock markets. We employed Vector Autoregression (VAR) model with relative variables including the EPU indices and three Chinese stock markers indices to display the impulse responses of the markets to the EPUs. Our results indicate that the Chinese stock markets negatively respond to their domestic economic policy uncertainty in the first, second, and third month after the EPU shocks. Moreover, we also found the negative responses of the Chinese markets to the EPU from the United States that require five months to rebalance the markets. However, the Chinese markets seem positively respond to the shocks of the economic policy uncertainty in Europe and also took five months to archive market rebalancing. The significant correlation of the economic policy uncertainty between China and the United States resulted in cross-sectional correlation estimates among the EPU indices. Furthermore, there is the reasonable interesting result to claim that the economic policy uncertainty in China is statistically influenced by their own trade and fiscal policy uncertainty that may be considered to be related with China-US trade war in our conclusion.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dejan Romih

Although the Covid-19 pandemic (the Great Lockdown), which began in March 2020, is not over yet (mainly due to new SARS-CoV-2 variants, such as Delta), there is already a growing body of evidence that suggests that the Covid-19 pandemic has contributed to an increase in economic policy uncertainty in the United States and the rest of the world. In this paper, I examine the impact of economic policy uncertainty on industrial production in the United States before the Covid-19 pandemic. Using vector autoregression, I found that industrial production in the United States responds negatively to a positive economic policy uncertainty shock in the United States. This suggests that US economic policymakers need to prevent economic policy uncertainty in the United States


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