Volume 15, Number 1, 2023

EN:

A previous study assessed asymmetric effects of the real peso-dollar volatility on trade flows between Mexico and the U.S., two members of the former NAFTA. We now expand that analysis by considering the trade flows between Mexico and Canada. Estimating traditional linear models did not yield much significant effects of the real peso-Canadian dollar volatility on trade flows between the two countries. However, estimating a nonlinear model revealed that four out of 16 Canadian exporting industries to Mexico and 10 out of 21 Mexican industries to Canada were affected asymmetrically. While the export shares of four Canadian industries was 28.2%, that of 10 Mexican industries, with a non-linear model was 80%. Additionally, while increased volatility boosted exports of four US industries, it had no significant effects on the exports of 10 Mexican industries. In contrast, decreased volatility had no significant effects on the US exporting industries, but it had favorable impact on Mexican exporting industries.

EN:

COVID-19 has resulted not only in widespread illness and death, it has also upended most spheres of social life including the economic/financial one in that it has had large impacts on local economies, resulting in widespread job loss, job insecurity and loss of income. Employability, a psychological construct, refers to the belief that one can get a (another) job in the event of job loss, and financial threat refers to feelings of threat and anxiety associated with one’s finances. During the pandemic, many people experienced job loss due mainly to business closures. The present study examined the relationship between employability, job insecurity due to COVID-19, and financial threat in a Canadian (n= 487) and U.S. (n=481) sample of adults recruited on MTurk early on in the pandemic (April 2020). Participants in the Canadian sample, compared to their American counterparts, were less likely to be employed full-time, 37% vs. 67%, respectively, were more likely to be unemployed, 40% vs. 13%, respectively, and had lower self-reported socio-economic status. A theoretical model was put forward in which employability was associated with less job insecurity and this was related to less financial threat. Results revealed that financial self-efficacy was associated with greater employability, less job insecurity and less financial threat in both samples. Further, feelings that one had enough income to “get by” since the advent of COVID-19, were positively related to employability in both samples, but in the Canadian sample only, these feelings were also related to less job insecurity and less financial threat. Implications of the study’s results are discussed within the economic climate resulting from the pandemic.

EN:

This study examines the asymmetric effects of uncertainties in monetary policy on the demand for money in Greece. In doing so, it introduces and uses the monetary policy uncertainty (MPU) index, which can probably be a very appropriate and robust explanatory variable in demand-for-money models. Therefore, this study with this index differs from previous empirical studies that use conventional uncertainty-based independent variables. Empirical findings of both models indicate that changes in the MPU index have significant effects on Greek money demand. Additionally, compendious inferences of the nonlinear model for the Greek people’s financial preferences are as follow as: (i): Greek people invest more in alternative financial instruments and/or spend their money rather than hold (demand) it when the MPU index increases, (ii): Greek people’s money demand in both increases and decreases in the MPU index is predominantly determined by longer-term bond rate changes.

EN:

This paper examines the herd behavior in six segmented markets on the Chinese stock markets. Using the OLS, GARCH, Quantile Regression, and State Space Models to examine the daily returns from 2003 to 2018, we find that herd behavior exists widely in all the segmented markets examined in China, particularly in the two B-share markets. The two B-share markets also show stronger (weaker) asymmetric herd effects when market returns are rising (falling) and when trading volumes are higher (lower). Further evidence suggests that the herd effect in China became stronger during the period of the Chinese stock market turbulence. The results can provide enlightenment for the Chinese policymakers to stabilize and to improve the efficiency of stock markets, and also help investors to identify their markets of interest and control financial risks.