“Asymmetric Export Volatility Shock Behaviour” of Lower Middle Income (LMI) Countries in South East Asia During COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 Pandemic still affecting all countries. South Asian economies and that particularly India is no exception. Because of this “uncertainty shock”, India’s GDP has contracted by 3.1percent in the last quarter of 2020. The present empirical work covers broadly the “asymmetric spillover and related noisy shocks” surrounded with trade (export) volatility about LMI nations in “two phases” i.e. in terms of considering the During pandemic phase (DC) the period from April 2019 till June 2020 and Pre-pandemic phase (PC) from April 2013 till November 2020. A comparative trade volatility asymmetries analysis were applied using a nonlinear volatility function i.e. exponential weighted moving average (EWMA), and identification of noisy behaviour after the initial post-recovery for empirical evidence. The empirical findings discovered that there were “extended” non-smooth and noisy “shock propagation” post initial recovery across two phases by the use of VAR and VECM outcomes. Bangladesh and Pakistan were stronger “Noisy shock contributors” while Nepal and Sri Lanka were turned out to be the strongest “Noisy shock receivers”. This “noisy” behaviour implies “uncertainty” and chaos on the international trade front resulting in higherthan expected volatility in trade figures and in-built destabilized momentum in the impulses. The results also relate to the possible opportunities of intra-regional trade convergence as a policy imperative.

The Role of Multilateralism of the WTO in International Trade Stability

We look at the effect of the WTO on stabilizing international trade using both a fixed-effects and an event study approach. Our results show that WTO members experience lower trade volatilties in a predictable and integrated system. In addition, we focus on the trade volatility comovement among countries in a multilateral framework. Previous research has mainly focused on WTO membership in a bilateral trade framework, which only allows interactions between two trade partners without considering any possible influence from other countries. A bilateral trade framework does not fully capture the effect of WTO membership, nor does it investigate why the multilateral platform of the WTO should exist. With a unique setup estimating interactions among multiple trading dyads, we find strong evidence supporting positive correlation or comovement of trade volatilities across trading pairs. Such a comovement appears much stronger among WTO members than between WTO and non-WTO members. Due to the feedback mechanism among dyads in a multilateral framework, such as the WTO, bilateral trade stability may further stabilize the global trade. Our results remain robust to a battery of sensitivity checks.

Dynamic Responses of Standard and Poor’s Regional Bank Index to the U.S. Fear Index, VIX

This study examines the reaction of the Standard and Poor’s Regional Bank Index (SPRB) to the U.S. equity market fear index (i.e., the Chicago Board of Trade Volatility Index [VIX]). The VIX is designed to perform as a leading indicator of the volatility in equity markets. However, practitioners observe many periods of divergence between the VIX and S&P 500. Our paper examines the daily data for the period of 2009 through 2019. We show that once the effects of consumer confidence and capacity utilization are accounted for, there is a negative association between the VIX and regional bank performance.

Research on the Relationship between Trade Volatility, Property Rights and New Energy Stock Returns under the Background of New Energy Industry Development

The research on the relationship between risk and return of new energy stocks is the focus of financial research. Related research focuses more on the relationship between idiosyncratic fluctuation risk and stock returns. In the Chinese stock market, some Chinese investors clearly prefer stocks with high risk characteristics, which leads to overvalued stocks. However, the short-selling restrictions in the Chinese stock market and the heterogeneity of investors have also led to a significant negative correlation between idiosyncratic volatility and cross-sectional yield. There are many studies on the relationship between idiosyncratic volatility and stock returns, but no consistent conclusions have been drawn, and there is a lack of relevant research on new energy stocks. Therefore. This paper collates the data of 70 listed companies in the new energy and new energy automobile industry from 2017 to 2019, tracks the stock returns of sample companies for 3 years (36 months), and conducts in-depth research on the relationship between idiosyncratic fluctuation risks and new energy stock returns. To further verify and supplement the risk-return relationship of China's new energy stock market and provide a certain basis for the company's decision-making behaviour.

Trade Volatility in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Plus Three: Impacts and Determinants

This paper investigates trade volatility in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Plus Three (ASEAN+3) and its links with output volatility, export diversification, and free trade agreements. To achieve this research objective, we apply several econometric estimators to data from all ASEAN+3 member states over the period 1990–2016. We first find evidence of a positive relationship between output volatility and trade volatility. Second, we reveal that the way export diversification is measured can influence its impacts on bilateral export volatility. Moreover, the relationship between income volatility, trade volatility, and export diversification seems to depend on country size and the level of economic development.

Aid for Trade flows and Real Exchange Rate Volatility in Recipient-Countries

This paper aims to contribute to the literature on the determinants of real exchange rate volatility by investigating the effect of Aid for Trade (AfT) flows on real exchange rate volatility in recipient-countries. The empirical findings show that over the full sample, AfT flows influence negatively the volatility of real exchange rate, with a lower reducing effect on Least developed countries (LDCs) compared to NonLDCs. The channels through which this effect materializes include export product concentration, institutional and governance quality, foreign direct investment inflows and terms of trade volatility. These results show that AfT flows clearly matter for real exchange rate volatility.