Dynamic response pattern of gold prices to economic policy uncertainty

Based on a time-varying parameter structural vector autoregression with stochastic volatility(TVP-SVAR-SV)model,the time-varying effects and country differences of economic policy uncertainty(EPU)on gold prices from August 2006 to December 2017 were examined.The results show that the effects of global economic policy uncertainty(GEPU)shock on gold prices change over time.The changes were positive during 2006-2008 and 2013-2017,while the impacts were negative during 2009-2012,implying that the efficiency of gold as a safe haven is not stable and depends on economic conditions.There are significant country differences regarding the impact of EPU on the price of gold,particularly during the international financial crisis,European debt crisis and Trump election.During the international financial crisis,EPU exerts a positive impact on gold prices in most countries.During the European debt crisis,the impact of EPU on gold prices is mainly negative in the examined countries.While during the Trump election,the impact displays positive and negative alternating in most countries.

The role of R&D and economic policy uncertainty in Sri Lanka’s economic growth

In this paper,we assess the role of investment in research and development(R&D)and economic policy uncertainty(EPU)in Sri Lanka’s economic growth experience.We do this by first determining which endogenous growth theories best explain the evolution of total factor productivity(TFP)in the country.Using historical time series data(1980–2018),we find that semi-endogenous growth theories best explain the evolution of TFP in Sri Lanka.This evidence suggests that R&D is critical to the country’s TFP expansion.We find that,through R&D,EPU has a crucial detrimental impact on TFP growth,although it is short-lived.Our findings are robust and have important implications for R&D investment and for moderating EPU.

Dynamic connectedness between stock markets in the presence of the COVID‑19 pandemic:does economic policy uncertainty matter?

This study investigates the dynamic connectedness between stock indices and the effect of economic policy uncertainty(EPU)in eight countries where COVID-19 was most widespread(China,Italy,France,Germany,Spain,Russia,the US,and the UK)by implementing the time-varying VAR(TVP-VAR)model for daily data over the period spanning from 01/01/2015 to 05/18/2020.Results showed that stock markets were highly connected during the entire period,but the dynamic spillovers reached unprecedented heights during the COVID-19 pandemic in the first quarter of 2020.Moreover,we found that the European stock markets(except Italy)transmitted more spillovers to all other stock markets than they received,primarily during the COVID-19 outbreak.Further analysis using a nonlinear framework showed that the dynamic connectedness was more pronounced for negative than for positive returns.Also,findings showed that the direction of the EPU effect on net connectedness changed during the pandemic onset,indicating that information spillovers from a given market may signal either good or bad news for other markets,depending on the prevailing economic situation.These results have important implications for individual investors,portfolio managers,policymakers,investment banks,and central banks.

Forecasting the volatility of EUA futures with economic policy uncertainty using the GARCH‑MIDAS model

This study investigates the impact of economic policy uncertainty(EPU)on the volatility of European Union(EU)carbon futures prices and whether it has predictive power for the volatility of carbon futures prices.The GARCH-MIDAS model is applied for evaluating the impact of different EPU indexes on the price volatility of European Union Allowance(EUA)futures.We then compare the predictive power for the volatility of the two GARCH-MIDAS models based on different EPU indexes and six GARCH-type models.Our empirical results show that the GARCH-MIDAS models,which exhibit superior out-of-sample predictive ability,outperform GARCH-type models.The results also indicate that EPU has noticeable effect on the volatility of EUA futures.Specifically,the forecast accuracy of the EU EPU index is significantly higher than that of the global EPU index.Robustness checks further confirm that the EPU index(especially the EPU index of the EU)has strong predictive power for EUA futures prices.Additionally,using the volatility forecasting methods that GARCH-MIDAS models combine with the EPU index,investors can construct their portfolios to realize economic returns.

Preventing crash in stock market:The role of economic policy uncertainty during COVID‑19

This paper investigates the impact of economic policy uncertainty(EPU)on the crash risk of US stock market during the COVID-19 pandemic.To this end,we use the GARCHS(GARCH with skewness)model to estimate daily skewness as a proxy for the stock market crash risk.The empirical results show the significantly negative correlation between EPU and stock market crash risk,indicating the aggravation of EPU increase the crash risk.Moreover,the negative correlation gets stronger after the global COVID-19 outbreak,which shows the crash risk of the US stock market will be more affected by EPU during the epidemic.

Raising capital amid economic policy uncertainty:an empirical investigation

This paper investigates how economic policy uncertainty affects firms’frequency and their choice of financial instruments to raise capital.By applying a three-step sequential framework over a sample of 6834 publicly listed US non-financial firms,we find that during periods of high economic uncertainty,firms raise capital more frequently with a preference toward debt financing.The empirical findings suggest that firms prefer debt financing over equity financing to avoid ownership dilution and high equity premia.The rise in leverage during periods of high economic uncertainty highlights the importance of scrutinizing policy tools used to stabilize the economy during such times.

Global Risk Appetite,US Economic Policy Uncertainties and Cross-Border Capital Flow

Based on the global asset portfolio model,this paper created a panel threshold model using EPFR fund data to empirically test the non-linear spillover effects of US economic policy uncertainties on cross-border capital flow for emerging economies.Our study led to the following findings:(1)When the level of global investor risk tolerance is high,rising US EPU will induce a capital inflow into emerging economies,as manifested in the“portfolio rebalancing effect.”When the level of global investor risk tolerance is below a critical threshold,this gives rise to risk aversion and emerging economies will experience net capital outflow,i.e.the“flight to quality effect”.(2)Equity fund investors have a lower risk tolerance threshold than bond fund investors.(3)According to our heterogeneity analysis,more attention should be paid to monitoring capital flow through actively managed funds,ETF funds,and retail investor funds.The economy should increase financial efficiency and economic resiliency to mitigate capital outflow pressures from the external environment.

The Influence of Economic Policy Uncertainty and Habit Formation on Rural Residents’ Consumption

Based on the household survey data of rural residents in 30 provinces(cities,districts)of China from 1995 to 2019,this paper constructs an econometric model of farmers’consumption behavior with habit formation and economic policy uncertainty,and makes an empirical analysis of farmers’consumption behavior by using sys-gmm estimation method.The results show that:since the reform and opening up,the changes of Chinese farmers’consumption behavior not only show excessive sensitivity to income changes on the whole,but also show a significant habit forming effect,and the existence of habit effect will reduce the impact of economic policy uncertainty on consumption;there is a large gap between regions,and the consumption in the western region is affected by the uncertainty of economic policy,the impact is greater.Therefore,the government should pay attention to the impact of economic shock on consumption,maintain the systematicness and stability of the policy,enhance the stability,continuity and accuracy of the policy,drive the development of the western region,build a long-term policy mechanism to promote the sustained and rapid increase of farmers’income,and further change farmers’consumption concept.

Economic Policy Uncertainty,Heterogeneity of Executives and Enterprise Innovation

This study analyzes how economic policy uncertainty affects corporate innovation,and the moderating effects of executive heterogeneity.A threephase dynamic investment and financing model is first built to analyze the mechanism.Empirical analysis confirms that the increase in the degree of economic policy uncertainty promotes enterprise innovation.Further results show that this promotion effect is more significant in enterprises with male executives,low educational level,no financial experience and political background.Moreover,the positive impact is only found in enterprises with moderate executive ability,and the overconfidence of senior executives plays a positive regulating role in it.

How Does Economic Policy Uncertainty Impact a Country's Position in Global Value Chains?

Economic globalization in the 21st century has been characterized by the rise and spread of global value chains(GVCs).It faces significant challenges due to increasing domestic and international policy uncertainty in the context of emerging mega risks like geopolitical tensions and climate change.This paper begins by constructing a theoretical model for an open economy to study how risk-averse firms make decisions regarding the sourcing of intermediate inputs in an uncertain environment.Our model solution proposes that firms will source fewer intermediate inputs from countries with more economic uncertainty.An increase in domestic and foreign uncertainty will have opposite impacts on a country's position in GVCs.In this sense,we argue that a country tends to move downstream along GVCs if its own economic policies become more uncertain,and it tends to move upstream with an increase in the uncertainty of its trading partner countries.Our regression analyses,based on data including the World Input-Output Database,World Development Indicators,the UN Comtrade database,and the Economic Policy Uncertainty Index,provide empirical support for this model-based conclusion.Our findings highlight that a nation must consider foreign economic policy uncertainty and maintain domestic policy stability to participate in GVCs.

Economic policy uncertainty and firms’investments in venture capital funds:Evidence from China

The latest business practice in the Chinese venture capital(VC)market involves the active participation of non-financial firms,as limited partners,in VC funds.Exploiting a unique hand-collected dataset from China,we find that economic policy uncertainty is positively related to the propensity of firms to participate in VC funds.Cross-sectional tests show that the positive effect of policy uncertainty on the likelihood of participating in VC funds is enhanced by industrial growth opportunities.Furthermore,economic consequence tests show that participating in VC funds is conducive to improving investment efficiency,increasing innovation performance and promoting product diversification.This study advances our understanding of firms’investment decisions and the VC industry development amid economic policy uncertainty.

体育消费价格波动与CPI、EPU的时变关系特征——基于TVP-SV-VAR模型

采用TVP-SV-VAR模型,研究湖北省体育消费价格波动与居民消费价格波动(CPI)、经济政策不确定性(EPU)的时变关系。采用Matlab软件实证分析发现,体育消费价格对居民消费价格的时变响应在短期为正向,响应波动幅度比较缓和,中期、长期响应方向比较接近,多以负向响应为主。体育消费价格波动对经济政策不确定性的时变响应在短期、中期、长期均呈波浪趋势,正向响应与负向响应交替出现,且长期响应程度较大。不同时点下,体育消费价格对居民消费价格波动、经济政策不确定性的响应存在显著差异,响应方向不同,波动幅度不同。建议增强经济政策稳定性,稳住体育消费预期;建立体育消费价格监测体系,加强体育市场监管;扩大体育消费有效供给,促进城镇、乡村体育消费协调增长。

State-owned Enterprises in China as Macroeconomic Stabilizers: Their Special Function in Times of Economic Policy Uncertainty

China has many state-owned enterprises(SOEs)and they have accounted for a large proportion of China's GDP over the last four decades.China's rapid growth contradicts literature that focuses on the inefficiency of SOEs.This study shows that,in periods of economic policy uncertainty(EPU),SOEs have performed a special function as"macroeconomic stabilizers."Using Chinese listed firm data from 2008 to 2019,we investigate five aspects of SOEs'unique functions as macroeconomic stabilizers:employment,investment,growth,financial operation,and expectations.When EPU increased,SOEs had more employment,higher investment expenditure,lower performance volatility,more robust financial structures,and more stable expectations than private firms.We employ the US-China trade war as an exogenous shock on EPU to conduct a difference-in-difference-in-differences approach to mitigate the problem of potentially omitted variables.The findings of this study provide a new perspective to better explain the functions of SOEs in the 21st century.

Does green growth in E-7 countries depend on economic policy uncertainty,institutional quality,and renewable energy?Evidence from quantile-based regression

Environmental degradation is one of the most debatable topics at international forums and it is considered a prime concern for the entire world.Therefore,researchers and policymakers have turned their attention from conventional economic growth to green growth.Although the existing literature has discussed several determinants of green growth,the impact of economic policy uncertainty(EPU),renewable energy consumption(RENE),and institutional quality(IQ)on green growth(GGDP)is relatively unexplored.Hence,this study is the earliest attempt to investigate the impact of EPU,IQ,and RENE on GGDP for emerging seven(E-7)countries from 1996 to 2019.In doing so,we apply panel quantile regression(PQR).The empirical findings delineate that EPU has a negative impact on GGDP,whereas IQ and RENE enhance the GGDP in E-7 countries.Based on the outcomes,this study suggests policy implications for achieving targets of the SDG 07,SDG 08,SDG 13,and SDG 16.The governments of these countries can achieve higher GGDP by ensuring political stability and reliable macroeconomic policies and through making such flexible policies that can easily control or address unpredictable future economic issues.

Economic Policy Uncertainty:Cross-Country Linkages and Spillover Effects on Economic Development in Some Belt and Road Countries

With the increase of economic environment uncertainty,it is of great importance to study the linkage and spillover effects of economic policy uncertainty among countries.Especially,this article selects eight countries along the Belt and Road as the core countries(China,Korea,Croatia,India,Russia,Greece,Pakistan,and Singapore)and four countries(Germany,France,Japan,and UK)as the peripheral countries,and then copula technique and mixed-frequency global vector autoregressive model are employed to analyze the correlation and the spillover effect of the economic policy uncertainty(EPU)for the twelve selected countries,respectively.The proposed empirical findings show clearly that the EPU correlation among the eight core Belt and Road countries is stronger and the spillover effect of the core countries to the peripheral countries is statistically significant.As a result,for harmonious and win-win development,the Belt and Road countries should pay a close attention to the EPU,because the stability of the EPU promotes greatly the economy development.

Economic uncertainty,central bank digital currency,and negative interest rate policy

The covID-19 outbreak has brought unprecedented social attention to economic uncertainty and negative interest rate policy(NIRP).How does uncertainty affect economic activity,and how effective is a NIRP based on central bank digital currency(CBDC)?To answer the two questions,we constructed a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium(DSGE)model that accommodates sticky prices and wages.The results indicated:(i)Economic uncertainty has substantially reduced investment,output,wage,and loans,which increases unemployment risk.In the short term,it has triggered impulsive consumption by households,while consumption has fallen into a slump in the long run.(ii)After suffering an uncertainty shock,the economy entered short-term stagflation and long-term deflation.The short-term stagflation was mainly caused by resident wage adjustment,and the long-term deflation was due to the decline in effective demand caused by unemployment risk.(ii)CBDC could eliminate the zero lower bound(ZLB)constraint,thereby improving the effectiveness of NIRP.Compared with traditional currency,CBDCbased NIRP could more effectively smooth macroeconomic fluctuations and alleviate the negative impact of an uncertainty shock,which is more conducive to restoring market confidence and promoting economic recovery.

数字化转型、服务化融合与制造业企业绩效提升——兼论经济政策不确定性的调节效应

引入经济政策不确定性作为调节变量,从嵌入式服务化和混入式服务化的双重融合视角,研究数字化转型提升制造业企业绩效的理论机制和作用路径。在此基础上,采用2008—2020年制造业A股上市公司数据对理论机制进行实证检验。研究结果显示:数字化转型能够提升企业绩效,嵌入式服务化发挥了正向中介作用,但在区域分布、所有制结构和技术水平等方面具有明显的异质性;数字化转型能够抑制混入式服务化中制造业企业的“脱实向虚”行为;经济政策的不确定性会增强数字化转型对嵌入式服务化的推动作用和对混入式服务化的抑制作用。

基于近端策略优化算法含碳捕集的综合能源系统低碳经济调度

为了实现园区综合能源系统(PIES)的低碳化经济运行和多能源互补,解决碳捕集装置耗电与捕碳需求之间的矛盾,以及不确定性源荷实时响应的问题,提出了基于近端策略优化算法含碳捕集的综合能源系统低碳经济调度方法。该方法通过在PIES中添加碳捕集装置,解决了碳捕集装置耗电和捕碳需求之间的矛盾,进而实现了PIES的低碳化运行;通过采用近端策略优化算法对PIES进行动态调度,解决了源荷的不确定性,平衡了各种能源的供给需求,进而降低了系统的运行成本。实验结果表明:该方法实现了不确定性源荷的实时响应,并相比于DDPG(deep deterministic policy gradient)和DQN(deep Q network)方法在低碳化经济运行方面具有有效性及先进性。

经济政策不确定性与企业“漂绿”行为

近年来企业“漂绿”现象屡见不鲜,已成为经济可持续发展的绊脚石。文章基于2010—2021年A股上市公司数据,分析经济政策不确定性如何影响企业“漂绿”行为。研究发现:经济政策不确定性与企业“漂绿”行为之间呈现“U”型关系,且样本期间经济政策不确定性大多处于“U”型左侧,发挥抑制企业“漂绿”行为的作用;调节效应分析表明,环境规制、环境认证、媒体关注和高管环保认知可以弱化经济政策不确定性与企业“漂绿”行为之间的“U”型关系。研究结论不仅深化了对企业“漂绿”行为影响因素的认识,也从外部宏观波动的角度为规范企业行为提供了新的见解。

经济政策不确定性、经济金融化与企业影子银行

经济政策不确定性对企业影子银行的影响是否一成不变?考虑到2008年后快速发展的经济金融化,本文基于2000—2019年中国沪深A股上市非金融企业的财务数据对此进行实证检验。结果表明:第一,经济过度金融化形成前,经济政策不确定性上升会抑制企业影子银行;经济过度金融化形成后,经济政策不确定性会促进企业影子银行。这种阶段性差异形成的原因在于经济过度金融化造成了企业影子银行与实体经营活动之间关系的转变,并主要通过运营资产传导。第二,经济金融化程度具有正向调节作用,其强化了经济政策不确定性对企业影子银行的差异性影响。第三,经济过度金融化形成后,具备融资优势或处于经营弱势的企业更易从事影子银行活动,且两者对于企业影子银行的扩张效应具有叠加影响。本文对于从根本上解决影子银行风险问题有一定的政策启示。