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Pakistan is a country which is facing chronic trade deficit since its independence and currency devaluation have always remained an effective strategy to bridge this gap between imports and exports. Previous studies which assessed the influence of changes in exchange rate on Pakistan’s trade balance followed a symmetric or linear approach. However, in this study we adopt an asymmetric approach, according to which appreciations and depreciations have asymmetric effects on the trade balance of Pakistan. Using commodity trade data of 28 (2-digits) industries that trade between Pakistan and United Kingdom, we find pattern of the J-curve in nine industries when a linear model was estimated. However, when we estimated a nonlinear model, the concept of asymmetric J-curve was supported in 14 industries. The largest industry (clothing) which engages in 36.5% of the trade was found to benefit from rupee depreciation.

Providing a scientific basis and method to ensure the smooth functioning of the Chinese crude oil market would be hugely significant to China’s future economic development and security. To this end, attempts have been made to both internationalize the Shanghai crude oil market and minimize financial risks. This paper selects three crude oil markets (INE, WTI and Brent) and five Chinese financial markets (the futures, bond, fund, stock and foreign exchange markets) as the research objects. The Diebold and Yilmaz spillover index model and the multifractal asymmetric detrended cross-correlation analysis (MF-ADCCA) method are used to study the volatility spillover effect and the asymmetric cross-correlation between crude oil markets and financial markets. When the volatility spillover effect and the asymmetric relationship that exists between the financial markets are examined, the volatility spillover of the oil market to the financial market is found to be significantly higher than that of the financial market to the oil market. In particular, the spillover effect was even more significant from late-2019 to early-2020. Analysis demonstrates an asymmetric cross-correlation between crude oil markets and the abovementioned five Chinese financial markets. In particular, the impact of the Chinese crude oil market on the stock market is greatest, especially with respect to the Brent and WTI crude oil markets. Except for the bond market, when the INE and Brent markets are increasing, the risk exposure to financial markets is more significant. Among financial markets, INE-Bond market asymmetry is stronger than WTI-bond market asymmetry, but weaker than that of the Brent-Bond market when there are large fluctuations.