Annals of Financial Economics

This study examines the relative systematic risks of 10 industries in China and ASEAN-3, including Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. We use four different approaches (ordinary least squares, least absolute deviations, MM-estimator and Theil–Sen estimator) and the weekly data from 2004 to 2016 to determine the sectoral systematic risk. The data are also divided into four sub-periods: the pre-crisis, crisis, post-crisis and normal periods. We find that the rankings of systematic risk, and the risk–return framework, for 10 industries vary from one country to another. The pairwise correlation analysis shows that significant correlation of sectoral ranks between estimation methods is found in China and Thailand, but not in Malaysia and Singapore. However, no correlations of industry rankings between China and ASEAN-3 countries for all the estimation methods for the full research periods and sub-periods are found. The sub-periods analysis also suggests that the rankings of systematic risk for industries in four countries across different economic periods are unstable.

Financial sector development plays a pivotal role in the process of economic growth and development through mobilization of savings and creating investment opportunities. Financial development also increases the level of technology by providing finance to entrepreneurs for technological innovations which leads to economic growth. Moreover, financial markets develop rapidly in those countries which have strong legal system to enforce property rights, support private contractual arrangement and protect the rights of investors that can support real economic activities. Therefore, the presence of good quality institutions strengthens financial development which leads to technological development and growth. This study investigates the impact of financial development, technology and institutions on economic growth of selected developing countries over the time span of 1996–2015. This study extends the Augmented Solow growth model by incorporating variables such as financial development, technology, institutions and their interaction terms in the model. Due to endogeneity problem, the empirical model used in the study is estimated by System Generalized Method of Moments (System-GMM). Empirical results show that financial development, technology and institutions have very strong effects on the economic growth developing countries. To attain a sustainable economic growth, developing countries should develop their institutions which are necessary for the effective functioning of financial markets that stimulate economic growth by providing finance to entrepreneurs for innovations in technological sectors.

This paper investigates whether exchange rate changes have symmetric or asymmetric effects on international trade integration, using quarterly time series data from 1980: Q1 till 2018: Q2. The recent innovation in cointegration techniques allows us to estimate nonlinear effects. We apply both linear autoregressive distributed lags (ARDL) and nonlinear ARDL models. The empirical results indicate that asymmetric relationship exists between exchange rate (REER) and international trade integration (ITI) in the short-run as well as in the long-run, meaning that real effective exchange rate has negative and statistically significant effects on international trade integration. Robustness checks indicate no role of various crisis including GFC on the relationship between ITI and REER, however, regime change has significantly negative impact in short-run and positive in long-run on ITI. The results are important because when we separate currency appreciation from the depreciation, it has the significant and different effects on international trade integration.

The paper examines the relationship between the economic integration and growth nexus in Vietnam using powerful quantitative methods, specifically the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) and the Granger causality test. The study focuses on three types of economic integration, including overall integration, financial integration and trade integration, which affected economic growth in Vietnam from 1986 to 2015. The key finding from this study is that when three types of economic integration are considered together, integration provides positive impacts on economic growth. In addition, causal relationship exists between overall integration and financial integration, and between trade integration and financial integration. As such, financial integration is absolutely important to economic growth in Vietnam. On the grounds of these findings, the Vietnamese government should carefully outline socio-economic development strategies to maintain political stability and to derive benefits from economic integration and globalization.

This paper examines the volatility spillover effect of the balance sheet of Federal Reserve (Fed) on the financial and goods markets of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh (collectively known as the Indo-Pak region). Diagonal BEKK-GARCH methodology is used to capture the volatility spillover effects on Indo-Pak economies. This study took data from the year 2004 to year 2019 on a monthly basis. The findings of the paper describe that there are volatility spillovers from Fed’s balance sheet to the financial markets of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh economies. On the other hand, there is also evidence of volatility spillovers from the balance sheet of Fed to the goods markets of these economies.