Shawkat M Hammoudeh

Our findings reveal that deposit interest rates in countries with higher COVID-19 infection rates decreased more than the counter rates in countries with lower infection rates, even among the branches of the same banks. Reduction in credit, national policies such as the European economic stimulus package (EuESP), and the risk-averse behavior of consumers do not explain the variations in rates of deposits across those different Eurozone countries. The data suggests that when there are more COVID-19 cases in the Eurozone, people living there become more concerned about losing their jobs or income

Changes in crude oil prices affect corporate debt position. This study investigates the association between changes in debt and crude oil price volatility in nonfinancial, BG, and SA firms in India. We use financial variables, crude oil prices, and macroeconomics data from 2004 to 2020 for 16,452 firm-years and employ OLS models and GMM regressions to test the hypotheses. The results revealed that debt position and crude oil price volatility significantly have different effects on business group (BG) and stand-alone (SA) firms. Crude oil price volatility is positively related to changes in the debt position. The effects of financial variables also significantly differ for the BG and SA firms. Finally, firms change their debt position in the positive or negative direction based on fluctuations in crude oil prices. Policy implications have also provided

This study attempts to re-examine the diversification, safe haven and hedge properties of traditional (oil and gold) and modern (Bitcoin and Ethereum) financial assets adduced as a diversifier, a hedge and a safe haven for equity investments in the G7 economies under different market conditions. A variety of linear and non-linear econometric methods are employed to explore this dependence. The empirical evidence supports gold as an undisputable diversifier for equity investments in the G7 markets in the overall times. Cryptocurrencies have a valuable safe haven potential, while traditional currencies don’t, particularly during the Covid-19 crisis. Further, suitability of the optimal hedge asset depends on market conditions and individual countries, where traditional currencies present the best hedge in the normal conditions. However, in stress periods, Bitcoin presents the best hedge for stocks of the G7 European and the UK countries, although Ethereum is optimal for hedging for the U.S. and Canada