Edosa Getachew Taera, Budi Setiawan, Adil Saleem, Andi Sri Wahyuni · 7 authors
This study investigates the volatility and external shock persistence within the financial and alternative assets markets during times of crises triggered by Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine. Univariate GARCH family models are used to capture the effect of financial turmoil caused by recent crises. Five different class of assets (which includes Islamic, ESG, Conventional, Crypto, FinTech, and commodities) have been chosen to represent a sample of the worldwide traditional financial market and alternative assets. The findings of this study revealed that almost all financial and alternative assets experienced an increase in volatility, except Bitcoin, across all observation periods. Islamic stock and ESG indexes exhibited high volatility before the Covid-19 outbreak. During the pandemic, all assets became more volatile. In addition, Islamic equities and ESG indexes showed relatively lower risk compared to conventional stocks and other alternative assets during the war. Multiple financial assets tend to be highly volatile during crises; however, global investors need to consider the advantages of incorporating Islamic stocks and ESG indexes as part of their investment portfolio innovation strategy, particularly in the presence of geopolitical risk.
Mouna Aloui, Besma Hamdi, Aviral Kumar Tiwari, Ahmed Jeribi
Purpose This study aims to explore the impact of cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero and Ripple) on the gold, WTI, VIX index, G7 and the BRICS index before and during COVID-19. Design/methodology/approach This research analyzes the impact of cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero and Ripple) on the gold, WTI, VIX index, G7 and the BRICS index before and during COVID-19, using the quantile regression approach for the 2016–2020 period. In addition, to catch long- and short-run asymmetries of cryptocurrencies on aforementioned dependent variables, an asymmetric nonlinear co-integration (nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag [NARDL]) approach is applied. Findings The result of the quantile regression shows that in a high market, which corresponds to the 90th quantile, the FTSE MIB, CAC40, SSE, BSE 30, and BVSP stock market showed a statistically insignificant negative coefficient, on the Bitcoin price. In a middle and low markets, which correspond to the 0.2, 0.3 and 0.5th quantiles, the BVSP, FTSE MIB, S&P/TSX, SSE and Nikkei stock markets show statistically significant and positive on Bitcoin. Evidence from the NARDL shows a statistically significant positive impact of cryptocurrencies on the gold, WTI, VIX index, G7 and BRICS indices before and during COVID-19 pandemic. Originality/value These results can provide investors with valuable analysis and information and help them make the best decisions and adopt the best strategies. Therefore, future investigations may concentrate and examine the monetary and governmental policies to be adapted to face the COVID-19 pandemic’s dangerous effects on both the society and the economy. For this reason, investors should take this into account when making their asset allocation decisions. Moreover, the portfolio managers, such as index funds, may consider few eligible cryptocurrencies for their inclusion into the portfolio. However, the speculators present in both stock and crypto markets may opt for a spread strategy to improve their portfolio returns.
This research examines the impact of the coronavirus index on the returns and volatility of ten major cryptocurrencies during the COVID-19 pandemic. For this purpose, we applied a multivariate volatility GARCH model with an integrated dynamic conditional correlation (DCC) approach to daily cryptocurrency values observed data during the January-December, 2020 period. Moreover, we used the Granger causality test to study return-volume correlations. The findings indicate that cryptocurrency volatility declined after the World Health Organization declared on March 11, 2020, that the coronavirus was a pandemic. Unlike most of the relevant previous studies, we found that the COVID-19 crisis did not have a long-term effect on cryptocurrency returns and volatility but only presented a short-term effect. Our results have implications for investors who need to determine an optimal portfolio for a scenario other than the base.
Propelled by the socio-economic disturbances and the COVID-19 pandemic, advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, and Web3, which are characteristic of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (FIR), have gained significant ground globally, including the developing countries. As organizations face the array of opportunities and challenges of adopting these technologies, human resource (HR) professionals are tasked with trailblazing the digital transformation of workplaces. Yet, a gap in scientific research regarding the preparedness of HR professionals for this task exists, especially in developing countries like North Macedonia. With this research, the authors aim at addressing this gap and exploring the impact of FIR-related technologies on Macedonian workplaces, employees, their skills, and jobs, as well as, the level of readiness of HR professionals to step up in line with these advanced technologies. The authors build upon a review of the existing literature and use a quantitative online survey distributed to a selected group of HR professionals, operating on the territory of North Macedonia. The findings will contribute to a better understanding of the preparedness of HR professionals to steer organizations in the direction of working in the new era of automation and digital transformation.
<title>Abstract</title> In this paper, we try to examine the relationship between the Bitcoin price, social media metrics and the intensity of Covid-19 pandemic. We also attempt to investigate the behavior of Bitcoin volatility during such pandemic. For this end, we use the error correction model, Co-integration processing tool and vector error correction model to detect potential transmission mechanisms among different variables and the dynamic coupling between them. We also apply the GARCH-type models to better apprehend the behavior of Bitcoin volatility. Our results clearly display the short- and long term evidences of the relationshipbetween the Bitcoin price, severity of the Covid-19 health crisis and social media metrics. Moreover, there is strong evidence related to the information content of social media during turbulent phases. We also report some distinctive and salient features of Bitcoin volatility. The information spillover from pandemic-related news to the Bitcoin prices is well-documented. Using the Covid-19 deaths and confirmed cases can be considered as measure of pandemic severity. As well, the information transmission mechanism is well-documented through social media which seems to have an added value during the stressful periods. Such analysis could have insightful implications for investors in crypto-currency market.
In recent years, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Dogecoin have emerged as important asset classes in general, and diversification and hedging instruments in particular. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has provided the chance to examine and assess cryptocurrencies’ behavior during extremely stressful times. The methodology of this study is based on an estimate using the ARDL model from 22 January 2020 to 12 March 2021, allowing us to analyze the long-term and short-term relationship between cryptocurrencies and COVID-19. Our results demonstrate that there is cointegration between the chosen cryptocurrencies in the market and COVID-19. The results indicate that Bitcoin, ETH, and DOGE prices were affected by COVID-19, which means that the pandemic seriously affected the three cryptocurrency prices.
The main purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the cryptocurrency market affects financial stability and economic growth of India. The study used quarterly data on bitcoin, financial stability, inflation rate, real GDP, economic volatility uncertainty, exchange rate, and market volatility index for the period 2015Q1-2021Q4. The robustness of the findings was confirmed by the fully modified OLS (FMOLS) and canonical cointegration regression (CCR). The study results demonstrated that an increase in cryptocurrency investments will affect the financial stability of India significantly. Each 1% increase in the cryptocurrency would reduce the financial stability by 5% approximately. However, there was a marginal effect of cryptocurrency on economic growth. The results also found that exchange rate volatility and inflationary pressure would also deteriorate the financial stability of the country. Furthermore, the results also identified positive and significant cointegration between economic growth and financial stability. Due to most transactions in the economy being done through the financial system, it is paramount for economic growth. Going forward, aggressive monetary policy tightening, volatility in capital flows and exchange rates, deanchoring of inflation expectations, faltering in the economic recovery, disruptions due to global supply chains and climate change will be the major risks to the financial stability and economic growth of India.
Purpose: This study aims to examine the impact of behavioral finance factors on the investment decisions of Gulf investors in the cryptocurrency market. Theoretical Framework: The study is based on the behavioral finance theory, which highlights the role of emotions and cognitive biases in shaping investment decisions. It examines the investment behavior and decision-making of Gulf investors in the cryptocurrency market using a comprehensive set of factors, including herding, heuristics, prospect, market, familiarity bias, and self-attribution bias. Design/Methodology/Approach: Primary data is collected through a survey-based approach using a 23-question distributed at the country level covering the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. The study analyzes the data collected using statistical methods to study the impact of behavioral finance factors on the investment decisions. Findings: The results show that herding and heuristics strongly influence investment decisions in the cryptocurrency market among Gulf investors. The prospect factor positively affects investment decision-making in KSA and Qatar but not in UAE and Kuwait. The market factor is a significant determinant of investment behavior, and investors in UAE and Qatar are more cautious and risk-averse compared to KSA and Kuwait. The familiarity bias factor has different effects on investment decision making in KSA and UAE. Research, Practical & Social Implications: This study offers valuable insights into how behavioral finance factors impact investment decisions in the cryptocurrency market. These findings can be useful to investors and financial institutions in developing investment strategies that take into account the cognitive and emotional biases of investors. Originality/Value: The study uses a comprehensive set of behavioral finance factors and includes respondents from four Gulf countries. Therefore, the study contributes to the existing literature by providing unique insights into the investment behavior and decision-making of Gulf investors in the cryptocurrency market.
This study examines the impact of COVID-19 on health-related cryptocurrencies. More precisely, we use the variable-Lag time-series (VLT) causality to test whether the pandemic caused the price performance and the volume of transactions of these cryptocurrencies. We then employ time-varying parameter (TVP) models to capture the sign of this effect (for the evidenced cases) and the impulse responses among the cryptocurrencies since they may affect one another. The results show there is no certain pattern, which means that for the years of the pandemic, COVID-19,has impacted cryptocurrencies differently, except for one case. Moreover, the results are very unstable during 2021, indicating time-varying characteristics for all cases, while during 2022, the impact of the pandemic on these cryptocurrencies was mostly negative. Similarly, during 2020 the price was negatively affected, but the transaction volume was mainly positively impacted. Spillovers are evidenced only for 2022, for certain cases both in the prices and volume of transactions. The results indicate that the pandemic affected cryptocurrencies heterogeneously, evidencing a different pattern among the three years examined. This finding should be taken into consideration in the adoption of relevant technological advancements in healthcare.
Blanka Škrabić Perić, Petar Sorić, Ivana Jerković
This paper aims to examine the behavioural determinants of Bitcoin trading volume within a cross-country framework of 14 world economies plus the Eurozone. We introduce a basic taxonomy of behavioural indicators, distinguishing between consumer confidence, economic policy uncertainty (EPU), and indicators of financial volatility. Our estimations reveal that the Bitcoin trading volume can be predicted more accurately by EPU than by any other class of indicators. Finally, we identify the COVID-19 shock as a catalyst for a psychologically-driven Bitcoin market and find evidence that Bitcoin was a macro hedging instrument in the pandemic. To obtain our results, we conducted a panel Granger causality test, employing the Least Squares Dummy Variables (LSDV) estimator. Contrary to previous research, we found that market fundamentals (industrial production and equity market volume) became significant drivers of Bitcoin trading during the pandemic. This conclusion was preserved when we used the LSDV corrected estimator, which is more suitable for panels with a smaller time dimension. Apart from the practical implications for traders, this paper provides researchers with detailed steps for applying Granger causality testing in panel data settings.
In the global financial environment, cryptocurrencies have become a disruptive force that offers possibilities as well as problems for firms in numerous industries. The incorporation of cryptocurrencies into small businesses’ operations has gained more attention in recent years as a way to boost their profitability. This study paper intends to provide a thorough examination of the effects of cryptocurrencies on the profitability of small businesses, illuminating the numerous aspects and ramifications of cryptocurrency adoption, but also emphasizing its consequences for the financial performance of small firms, with the aim to fill the knowledge vacuum, as well as to provide insights into the potential and constraints connected with cryptocurrencies in the small company environment by examining revenue generation, cost management, financial transactions, and market growth. For a number of reasons, it is essential to comprehend how cryptocurrencies affect the profitability of small businesses, and in order to accomplish the goals of this study, a thorough analysis of the body of literature will be done, looking at empirical research, case studies, and theoretical frameworks pertaining to the effect of cryptocurrencies on small company profitability. This research study seeks to provide a comprehensive grasp of the topic by combining the existing information. In order to learn more about small company owners’ experiences, difficulties, and possibilities related to bitcoin adoption, as the main cryptocurrency so far, primary data were gathered via surveys or interviews among them. The study adds to the body of information already available and provide useful advice, as well as shared practical experience for academics, policymakers, and small company owners who are interested in learning about the effects of bitcoin integration on small business profitability.
The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the cryptocurrency market affects the financial stability and economic growth of India. The study used time series quarterly data on bitcoin, financial stability, inflation rate, real GDP, economic volatility uncertainty, exchange rate, and market volatility index for the period 2015Q1–2022Q4. The robustness of the findings was confirmed by the fully modified OLS (FMOLS) and canonical cointegration regression (CCR). The study results demonstrated that an increase in cryptocurrency investments will affect the financial stability of India significantly. Each 1% increase in the cryptocurrency would reduce the financial stability by 5% approximately. However, there was a marginal effect of cryptocurrency on economic growth. The results also found that exchange rate volatility and inflationary pressure would also deteriorate the financial stability of the country. Furthermore, the results also identified positive and significant cointegration between economic growth and financial stability. Due to most transactions in the economy being done through the financial system, it is paramount for economic growth. Going forward, aggressive monetary policy tightening, volatility in capital flows and exchange rates, de-anchoring of inflation expectations, faltering in the economic recovery, disruptions due to global supply chains and climate change will be the major risks to the financial stability and economic growth of India.
This research aims to analyze and explain the importance of diversification benefit of cryptocurrencies and its nature in accordance with its relation with other financial assets before and especially during the Covid-19 pandemic era. This paper will help investors to understand that how to manage a portfolio of cryptocurrencies in parallel with other financial assets and mainly cryptocurrencies since they were a safe investment option during the pandemic period due to the good defense these digital currencies activated against the covid-19 shock back in 2020. Paper used DCC-GARCH model to examine the safety of Bitcoin and Ethereum with financial market of S & P 500 and FTSE100.
We examine how the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war affect volatility spillovers and extreme return movements in the stock, gold, and bitcoin markets. Our study uses the post-pandemic period of up to two and a half years in order to reflect the lingering effects of the pandemic as well as its initial impact. We find that volatility spillover has weakened in the post- versus pre-pandemic period. Additionally, our results suggest that the Russia-Ukraine war has had little impact on volatility spillovers. We subsequently test for extreme return movements separately and find substantial increases in the likelihood that two assets’ extreme returns move simultaneously post- versus pre-pandemic.
Hashim Jusoh, Abdelkader O. El Alaoui, Amina Dchieche, Ahmad Faizol Ismail · 5 authors
We analyze the relationship between Bitcoin and major regional Islamic stock indices during two major events: COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war. The multi-horizon analysis provide evidence of low correlation between Bitcoin’s inter-temporal returns and Islamic indices returns during periods before extreme events. However, there is limited potential for diversification in the long run as their correlations increase significantly. During shocks, Bitcoin cannot be a safe haven for Islamic markets.
Mohammad Ashraful Ferdous Chowdhury, Mohammad Abdullah, Mansur Masih
This paper makes an initial attempt to investigate the risk spillover of the Russia-Ukraine war and oil price on Asian Islamic Stocks and bitcoin. We apply quantile-based connectedness measures using daily return data covering four Asian Islamic stock indices–oil, gold, bitcoin, and war panic–from February 1, 2022, to July 15, 2022. The results indicate higher connectedness in the upper and lower quantiles compared to the middle quantile, which implies that return shocks react more sharply during high war panic.
Ruby Khan, Navdeep Dhaliwal, Rajesh Deorari, P. Anoosha · 6 authors
The use of cryptocurrency for international payments and remittances has been a topic of increasing interest in recent years. Cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, have the potential to reduce transaction costs, increase transaction speed and provide financial inclusion for individuals and businesses that are currently unbanked or underbanked. The research aims to explore the current use cases of cryptocurrency for international payments and remittances, as well as the challenges and opportunities that arise from their adoption. The research will also investigate the regulatory landscape and its impact on the adoption of cryptocurrency for international payments and remittances. The research will be conducted through a combination of literature review and case studies of existing cryptocurrency payment and remittance services. The findings of this research will provide insights into the potential of cryptocurrency as a viable alternative to traditional payment and remittance methods and inform the development of policy and regulation in this area.
With the rise of Internet finance and big data, blockchain technology is expected to propose solutions to the challenges faced by agricultural supply chain finance in recent years. This paper will study the problems of food and safety and the low level of technology in rural areas through literature research. There is a gap between China's grain production rate and that of developed countries. Because of its decentralization and precise traceability characteristics, blockchain technology helps to build a distinctive regulatory and accountability system for food and agricultural safety in China. At the same time, blockchain technology with intelligent contract can effectively simplify the business process of agricultural supply chain finance, and reduce the threshold and cost of rural technology promotion, and increase security because of its features that cannot be changed artificially. It can be seen that the blockchain has practical significance to the challenges faced agricultural supply chain finance.
Ahmed Bossman, Mariya Gubareva, Тамара Теплова
The attractiveness of the equities of the Islamic faith-compliant companies as a hedge or possible diversifier has been underscored; however, there is a lack of empirical research on their safe-haven and hedge attributes against changes in the level of cryptocurrency environmental attention (ICEA). We examine whether various distributions of the ICEA possess a significant predictive power on various quantiles of Islamic sectoral stock returns by employing weekly data on the ICEA and Shariah-compliant stocks from 10 sectors of economic activity and base their multi-scale analysis on the complete ensemble empirical mode decomposition (CEEMDAN) approach. We present the asymmetric causality-in-means and quantile-on-quantile regression between the ICEA and Islamic stocks. The empirical results show a significant predictive power of the ICEA on various quantiles of Islamic sectoral stocks in the medium- and long term. We find that the safe-haven and hedging attributes of investments in Islamic stocks are sector-dependent across the medium- and long-term scales. Hence, our findings emphasize that based on market states, possible safe-haven attributes, diversification opportunities, and hedges for cross-sectoral investments with Islamic stocks are viable along various investment horizons for diverse levels of cryptocurrency environmental attention. These findings provide original valuable insights for portfolio management and improving financial stability.
The role of youth in investment is huge when we compare that to the old generation and their perceived attitudes about cryptocurrency investment is getting increased these days in India. This study's primary goal was to assess people's attitudes among young people regarding cryptocurrency awareness and investment. Most of the youth have not yet purchased bitcoin, were just familiar with cryptocurrencies, and lack a comprehensive overview of potential risks. The study’s data was gathered from primary and secondary sources of data. The fundamental information obtained by a questionnaire sent to more than 200 active and passive investors. The secondary sources of data used for the completion of this assignment include journals, magazines, internet websites, textbooks, and a review of literature. Several hypotheses were generated and evaluated with the intention of providing youths with useful suggestions.
Purpose: This study aims to utilize the bibliometric method to investigate the most important characteristics and key research topics in the literature on cryptocurrency research. Theoretical framework: This study used a text mining framework based on domain-level and knowledge structure analysis. Design/methodology/approach: Based on domain-level and knowledge structure analysis, this study used data from the Scopus database, which included 1,685 published articles from 2018 to 2023 on cryptocurrency research. Data analytics and visualization may be accomplished with the bibliometrix package in R software. Findings: The result found that, there has been a fifty percent annual growth in cryptocurrency research since 2018. Studying the most frequently used terms and phrases in the research makes it possible to see which research areas have the greatest impact. According to the results, (1) cryptocurrency market, (2) market efficiency, (3) herding behavior, (4) COVID pandemic, (5) safe haven, (6) stock markets, (7) financial markets, and (8) volatility spillovers should be the emphasis of future research. Research, Practical & Social implications: This article will be useful to scholars and practitioners looking for research directions. Based on the trending topics and knowledge structure of cryptocurrency research, this research also suggests potential new study topics for the future. Originality/value: The value of these findings revealed an increase and a new aspect of cryptocurrency research in the business field related to the continued expansion of empirical research documents, researchers/authors, global collaboration, and co-citations.
This study examines the tendency of short-term return spillover across Bahrain stocks, bitcoin, and other commodity assets factoring in the dynamic effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study employed vector autoregression (VAR) model using the daily returns of Bahrain All Shares Index, bitcoin, crude oil, and gold futures from January 2018 to March 2022. The results showed a persistent unidirectional short-term spillover of return from the Bahrain stock market to the futures gold market for both the period before and during the pandemic. Moreover, the results also showed that the significant positive shock in the bitcoin returns as granger-caused by the returns of the Bahrain stock market is only during the period before the pandemic. Finally, a significant negative contemporaneous short-term effect on the crude oil market returns can be statistically explained by the shocks in the Bahrain stock market only during the COVID-19 period.
Today, governments levy various forms of taxes on economic activities, including revenue from wages or consumption of goods and services, as well as on properties, in order to obtain the funds necessary to pay their public expenditures and provide public goods and services. As a result, taxes have increasingly become a major source of public funding and a key fiscal weapon used by governments to promote or restrain economic growth and the development of specific economic sectors in many nations today. Block chain is made up of a dispersed database of informational blocks that are encrypted using specialized hashing algorithms to allow data monitoring. The purpose of this study is to look into the effects of using blockchain technology for taxation. In the study, the detailed explanation related to the usage of blockchain technology for taxation was presented. The review's findings support the study's conclusion that the legal and administrative studies are still being conducted to simplify tax administration, enable efficient revenue collection, and lower fiscal deficits. It is also concluded that blockchain has made taxation fast, accurate, and accessible to everyone and is helping in economic development. As a result of its transparency, blockchain technology will cause upheaval and innovation in global tax regimes. In the future work, we will be studying the implementation of blockchain for taxation by proposing an framework and also we will carry out the study to explain the blockchain usage in taxation in real time.