Economic Policy Uncertainty and the Co-Movement between REITs and Exchange Rate

The REITs market has attracted a lot of interest among the academic, policymakers, and market participants. The linkages between REITs and macroeconomic and financial variables have been adequately explored in the literature, with more emphasis on linear models. This study expands the frontier of knowledge by examining the role of uncertainty in the comovement/spillover between REITs and the currency markets. Some interesting results were observed. First, using the Diebold and Yilmaz (2012) spillover test, we find that there is strong connectedness between the REITs and currency markets. Second, the BDS test shows that nonlinearity is a very crucial factor to be put into consideration when examining the role of EPU in affecting the interactions between REITs and exchange rate markets. Third, the non-parametric causality-in-quantile test confirms that the connectedness between the markets and EPU is stronger around the lower and middle quantiles. These results have important policy implications for policymakers and market participants. The study also offers suggestions for future research.

Asymmetric Impact of International Trade on Consumption-Based Carbon Emissions in MINT Nations

The association between carbon emissions and international trade has been examined thoroughly; however, consumption-based carbon emissions, which is adjusted for international trade, have not been studied extensively. Therefore, the present study assesses the asymmetric impact of trade (import and export) and economic growth in consumption-based carbon emissions (CCO2) using the MINT nations (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey) as a case study. We applied the Nonlinear ARDL to assess this connection using dataset between 1990 and 2018. The outcomes from the BDS test affirmed the use of nonlinear techniques. Furthermore, the NARDL bounds test confirmed long-run association between CCO2 and exports, imports and economic growth. The outcomes from the NARDL long and short-run estimates disclosed that positive (negative) shocks in imports increase (decrease) CCO2 emissions in all the MINT nations. Moreover, positive (negative) shocks in exports decrease (increase) CCO2 emissions in all the MINT nations. As expected, a positive shock in economic growth triggers CCO2 emissions while a negative shift does not have significant impact on CCO2 emissions in the MINT nations. Furthermore, we applied the Gradual shift causality test and the outcomes disclose that imports and economic growth can predict CCO2 emissions in the MINT nations. The study outcomes have significant policy recommendations for policymakers in the MINT nations.

An Asymmetric Investigation of Remittance and Trade Openness Impact on Inequality: Evidence From Selected South Asian Countries

This study’s motivation is to explore the relationship pattern between remittance, trade openness, and inequality of selected south Asian countries for the 1976–2018 period. The study performed non-linear tests, including unit root tests, non-linearity applying ordinary least squares (OLS) and BDS tests, non-linear autoregressive distributed lagged (NARDL) tests, and asymmetry causality tests to assess their association. Study findings with non-linear unit root tests suggest that the research variables follow the non-linear process of becoming stationary from non-stationary. The non-linear OLS and BDS test results confirm the existence of non-linearity among research variables, implying rejection of the null hypothesis of “no non-linearity.” Furthermore, the results of the Wald test in NARDL confirm the availability of asymmetric links among variables. Besides this, the results of NARDL confirm the long-run asymmetric relationship between remittances, trade openness, and inequality in all sample nations. Findings suggest that both positive and negative shocks in remittances and trade openness is critical to either instituting or vexing the present state of inequality in the economy in the long term. In the directional relationship with asymmetry causality, the study shows that the feedback hypothesis holds to explain the asymmetric causal effects that are positive shocks in remittances and trade openness toward inequality.

National and Subnational Drivers for Cooking Energy Consumption in Rural India

BackgroundThe energy transition pattern in India highlights that cooking continues to be the weakest link in the energy transition process for rural households. The government is trying to subsidize LPG for rural families to increase usage of LPG in India for a clean cooking energy transition. The paper endeavors to fill the void by revisiting the nature and degree of the rural energy transition for cooking in India. MethodologyUsing a multinomial logit model, the potential drivers at the individual household and group level have been identified. The group effect analysis has been conducted purposely to understand if social and cultural norms or -level factors within a village society affect the cooking energy transition of households in rural India and if that prevails over the income effect. At the sub-national level, an estimate of energy inequality has been derived by applying social choice-based Atkinson Inequality measure to examine the connection between higher energy inequality in primary fuel used for cooking and higher income inequality. In addition, the Brock-Dechert-Scheinkman (BDS) test on firewood consumption has been conducted for poor energy households from 38 districts of Bihar, one of the highest energy-poor states, to statistically examine the perceived nonlinearity in the dynamics of energy transition/fuel choice in cooking for rural households. ResultsThe analysis at the national level indicates the importance of local and cultural factors that leads to the nonlinearity in the probability of the switchover from firewood to other clean fuel options. Conclusions SummaryThe paper highlights if subsidies on modern fuel and/or other cooking alternatives alone drive the transition process and examines the validity of the energy ladder hypothesis in the case of rural cooking energy transition and the drivers of the energy transition at the national and sub-national level. Potential ImplicationsThe state-level analysis done for Bihar and across various districts corroborates this finding and provides an important direction towards local context-specific policy-making in the long term.

Investigating adaptive behavior in the foreign exchange market: ZAR versus USD and CNY

This study examines the adaptive behavior of South Africa’s rand (ZAR) exchange rate against its major trading partners, the US Dollar (USD) and the Chinese Yuan (CNY) over the period 1999-2020. The study uses a rolling parametric linear variance ratio (VR) test, nonparametric linear runs test, and non-linear Brock, Dechert and Scheinkman (BDS) test to determine time-varying predictability and regression analyses to assess the effect of market conditions. The results show that the foreign exchange market was found to be inefficient based on the VR tests, but efficient with very few windows of inefficiency based on the runs test and BDS test. In addition, apart from the GDP, none of the market conditions studied is associated with non-parametric linear and nonlinear predictabilities. The study draws two main conclusions. Firstly, the South African foreign exchange market is adaptively efficient. Secondly, foreign exchange market efficiency is primarily driven by the level of economic growth. Practically, it will be difficult for investors to exploit the few windows of predictability in the South African foreign exchange market by focusing mainly on the market conditions studied.

The BDS test of independence

In this article, we describe and implement the Brock, Dechert, and Scheinkman (1987, Working paper) test of independence of the elements of a time series.

Zmiana poziomu efektywności amerykańskiego rynku akcji – od kryzysu finansowego 2007-2009 do pandemii COVID-19

Purpose – Verification of the change in the efficiency of the US stock market from the 2007-2009 financial crisis to the COVID-19 pandemic. Research method – The BDS test (occurrence of non-linear relationships between daily logarithmic rates of return) and the Quenouille autocorrelation test up to the fifth order (occurrence of linear relationships between daily logarithmic rates of return) for the S&P500 and DJIA indices were used. Results – The occurrence of unusual phenomena changes the level of US stock market effectiveness. An increase in inefficiency was observed both during the 2007-2009 financial crisis and now, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Higher-level relationships between rates of return were found during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originality / value / implications / recommendations – A comparison of the impact of two recent global events on the level of efficiency of the US stock market. Additionally, the article indicates which of the two key US stock indices provided more frequent investment opportunities.

The Causal Connection of Natural Resources and Globalization with Energy Consumption in Top Asian Countries: Evidence from a Nonparametric Causality-in-Quantile Approach

Given the significance of energy conservation as a prime objective of environmental sustainability, countries all around the world are keen to identify significant factors that lead to the augmentation of energy utilization. Considering the rising emphasis of economies in utilizing natural resources to attain higher levels of globalization, the current research was aimed at investigating how the returns of natural resources and globalization affect energy consumption in top Asian economies. In doing so, the study emphasized the nonlinear relationship among the variables and applied the novel nonparametric method of causality in quantile to identify the quantile-based causal connection of natural resources and globalization on the returns and volatility of energy utilization in selected Asian countries. Moreover, the presence of nonlinearity in the variables was tested by the Brock- Dechert-Scheinkman test (BDS test), which confirmed that all variables showed nonlinear behavior. Furthermore, the findings of quantile cointegration confirmed a nonlinear long-run relationship of natural resources and globalization with energy utilization. The prime findings of causality in quantile revealed that the returns of natural resources and globalization had a significant causal effect on the returns of energy consumption in all countries. On the other hand, the volatility in energy consumption concluded no causal association with the returns of natural resources and globalization in any of the studied Asian countries. The findings are beneficial for the policymakers to formulate policies that will help to reduce the level of energy consumption.

Study on the nonlinear and chaotic behavior of exchange traded funds listed in Hong Kong Stock Exchanges

This study examines the nonlinearity and chaotic behavior of the time series of returns of two exchange traded funds (ETFs) listed in Hong Kong Stock Exchanges, namely Hong Kong Tracker Fund (HKTF) and iShares FTSE A50 (ISFT), and the adequacy of autoregressive-generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (AR-GARCH) models to capture nonlinearity. A set of nonlinearity tests consistently indicates the presence of nonlinearity in both return time series and the Brock–Dechert–Scheinkman (BDS) test of nonlinearity on AR-GARCH residuals, and the inability of AR-GARCH models to capture the nonlinearity in the return series at different stages of the model-building process. Testing for chaos is a rather delicate part in this study and is done by estimating the correlation dimension for both ETFs’ return series. The correlation dimension saturates at a finite value, and the saturation indicates the presence of chaos in two ETFs considered for this study.