An investigation into the volatility and cointegration of emerging European stock markets

This dissertation examines the interaction between European Emerging markets including cointegration, volatility, correlation and spillover effects. This study is also concerned with the process of the enlargement of the European Union and how this affects the emerging markets of newcomers. The twelve emerging markets studied are Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungry, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, which are all progressing very rapidly in their reforms and domestic economic stability. The majority of prior studies on stock market comovements and integration have concentrated on mature developed markets or the advanced emerging markets of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland whilst the behaviour and interrelationship of other Central and Eastern European equity markets has been neglected. This study fills that gap. There are two key aspects investigated in this study. Firstly the cointegration between studied emerging markets and secondly the volatility and spillover effects. The cointegration analysis examines the short and long run behaviour of the twelve emerging stock markets and assesses the impact of the EU on stock market linkages as revealed by the time series behaviour of their stock market indices. The adopted time- series framework incorporates the Johansen procedure, Granger Causality tests, Variance Decompositions and Impulse Response analyses. The cointegration results for both pre- and post- EU periods confirm the existence of long run relationships between markets. Granger Causality relationships are indentified among the most advanced emerging markets. The Variance Decomposition analyses find evidence of regional integration amongst the markets. Furthermore, the Impulse Response function illustrates that the shocks in returns for all twelve markets persist for very short time periods. The volatility and spillover analysis applies several univariate models of Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity, including GARCH, GJR and EGARCH. The models used in the analysis of cross market effects include CCC, diagonal BEKK, VARMA GARCH and VARMA AGARCH. Overall, the econometric analysis using these models shows stock market integration during the pre-EU period, however interdependence of the markets is established for the post-EU period. The results provide important information on the impact of the accession of new countries to the EU, with clear evidence of stability in Central and Eastern Europe markets and integration within the region. This study has important implications for investors wishing to diversify across national markets, such as the implications of growing asset correlations, if they are displayed, and whether investors should diversify outside the Central and Eastern European countries. It could be argued that the former Eastern block economies constitute emerging markets which typically offer attractive risk adjusted returns for international investors. Moreover, stock market comovement is of considerable interest to policy makers from a perspective of the effects on the macroeconomy, the planning of monetary policy and impact of the degree of stock market comovements on the stability of international monetary policy

Volatility and correlations for stock markets in the emerging economies

This paper examines the European investment implications of the recent European Union (EU) expansion to encompass former Eastern bloc economies. What are the risk and return characteristics of these markets pre- and post-EU? What are the implications for investors within the Euro zone? Should investors diversify outside the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)? The former Eastern bloc economies constitute emerging markets which typically offer attractive risk-adjusted returns for international investors. In this paper, we explore a number of aspects of this important issue and their implications for CEE based investors, culminating in a Markowitz efficient frontier analysis of these markets pre- and post-EU expansion.Emerging Markets; European Union; Portfolio investment

An analysis of whether privately owned financial planning practices are transitioning to fully independent advice providers

In Australia, there are over 20,000 financial advisers, with only 1 % registered as independent financial advisers. This study investigates why there has been no significant transition to independent advising. The importance of the study is underlined by the substantial losses suffered by thousands of consumers from advice that has been found to be influenced by conflicts of interest. Using a qualitative technique, the study undertook exploratory semi-structured interviews among financial advisers. The study found that over 90% of privately owned advisers will not be transitioning to independent advising due to the belief that clients will not pay fees for insurance advice. The study finds strong evidence that the affordability of paying fees for insurance advice arguably outweighs the conflicts of interest associated with non-independent insurance advice

Factors affecting the growth of small privately-owned financial planning businesses

Over the past 10 years, there have been many financial scandals in the financial advice industry, which has caused substantial losses for investors. Large wealth institutions controlled by major Australian banks have significantly contributed to investor losses by promoting their products which were not always in the best interests of clients. The aim of this study was to explore the factors affecting the current and future growth of small privately-owned financial planning businesses as a competitive marketplace provides better consumer outcomes. The study undertook a qualitative approach using an exploratory research design which involved the recruitment of 51 privately-owned financial planning practice owners who were personally interviewed with semi-structured interview questions. Using a theoretical framework based on Michael Porter\u27s five competitive forces model, the study found that the main factors enhancing growth were differentiation of service, technology enhancement, target marketing and business and client referral arrangements. Factors that negatively affected growth included the affordability of providing advice due to regulatory changes and the negative public perception associated with various industry scandals. The results provide existing and new entrant adviser practices with valuable knowledge to make informed decisions in the areas of practice management and direction. Additionally, the study provides policymakers and regulators with further knowledge to better support the privately-owned financial planning sector, thus enabling consumers to benefit from a more competitive marketplace

Cointegration between the European Union and the selected global markets following Sovereign Debt Crisis

The purpose of this paper is to provide an analytical analysis of cointegration between Europe and the other significant trading partners, namely US, China, Japan and Australia, for the period from January 1, 2010 to December 30, 2016. This captures the impact of the sovereign European debt crisis and the Greek crisis. A range of parametric techniques were adopted including Johansen cointegration analysis, Vector Error Correction Model and Granger causality. The results of the crisis Granger causality test during the European sovereign crisis implies the highest influence to be that of the US and Japanese stock market over the other four markets. Overall, found that the Asia-Pacific region plus the US stay closely related to each other, while European countries influence all the studied markets except each other. For the post-crisis sub-period, the Granger causality is slightly different. It is observable that the UK and Germany are influencing all the markets. This is probably due to the recent Brexit referendum outcome and potential consequences not only for the EU, but also for the rest of the world too. Overall, the Granger outcome shows the dependence between Europe and other global markets, but there is no European interdependence during the sovereign debt crisis period. It may be concluded that there is a separation of Asian markets from the European markets and even though cointegration exists, the relationship is rather weak

Impact of positive education psychology on the first-year student experience

Positive Psychological Interventions (Positive Education) uses a multidimensional approach that includes fostering beliefs and developing a growth mindset to reduce anxiety and psychological distress and improve well-being. Positive education has been shown to improve secondary students’ engagement, well-being and self-efficacy, impacting achievement. Seligman’s (2011) PERMA framework with its elements of positive emotions, engagement, relationship, meaning and accomplishment has been successfully used to assess positive education strategies in schools. However, the model has not been tested at the tertiary level. We used the PERMA model framework to create a survey that was suitable for the tertiary level and implemented positive education strategies in a class of mainly foreign on-campus students to determine the usefulness of the model. Results showed a strong relationship between positive emotions and engagement, engagement and relationship, engagement and meaning and engagement and accomplishment, but a lack of association between accomplishment and: positive emotions, relationship and meaning

Dimeric peroxiredoxins are druggable targets in human Burkitt lymphoma

Burkitt lymphoma is a fast-growing tumor derived from germinal center B cells. It is mainly treated with aggressive chemotherapy, therefore novel therapeutic approaches are needed due to treatment toxicity and developing resistance. Disturbance of red-ox homeostasis has recently emerged as an efficient antitumor strategy. Peroxiredoxins (PRDXs) are thioredoxin-family antioxidant enzymes that scavenge cellular peroxides and contribute to red-ox homeostasis. PRDXs are robustly expressed in various malignancies and critically involved in cell proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis. To elucidate potential role of PRDXs in lymphoma, we studied their expression level in B cell-derived primary lymphoma cells as well as in cell lines. We found that PRDX1 and PRDX2 are upregulated in tumor B cells as compared with normal counterparts. Concomitant knockdown of PRDX1 and PRDX2 significantly attenuated the growth rate of lymphoma cells. Furthermore, in human Burkitt lymphoma cell lines, we isolated dimeric 2-cysteine peroxiredoxins as targets for SK053, a novel thiol-specific small-molecule peptidomimetic with antitumor activity. We observed that treatment of lymphoma cells with SK053 triggers formation of covalent PRDX dimers, accumulation of intracellular reactive oxygen species, phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and AKT and leads to cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Based on site-directed mutagenesis and modeling studies, we propose a mechanism of SK053-mediated PRDX crosslinking, involving double thioalkylation of active site cysteine residues. Altogether, our results suggest that peroxiredoxins are novel therapeutic targets in Burkitt lymphoma and provide the basis for new approaches to the treatment of this disease

Low dose of GRP78-targeting subtilase cytotoxin improves the efficacy of photodynamic therapy in vivo

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) exerts direct cytotoxic effects on tumor cells, destroys tumor blood and lymphatic vessels and induces local inflammation. Although PDT triggers the release of immunogenic antigens from tumor cells, the degree of immune stimulation is regimen-dependent. The highest immunogenicity is achieved at sub-lethal doses, which at the same time trigger cytoprotective responses, that include increased expression of glucose-regulated protein 78 (GRP78). To mitigate the cytoprotective effects of GRP78 and preserve the immunoregulatory activity of PDT, we investigated the in vivo efficacy of PDT in combination with EGF-SubA cytotoxin that was shown to potentiate in vitro PDT cytotoxicity by inactivating GRP78. Treatment of immunocompetent BALB/c mice with EGF-SubA improved the efficacy of PDT but only when mice were treated with a dose of EGF-SubA that exerted less pronounced effects on the number of T and B lymphocytes as well as dendritic cells in mouse spleens. The observed antitumor effects were critically dependent on CD8(+) T cells and were completely abrogated in immunodeficient SCID mice. All these results suggest that GRP78 targeting improves in vivo PDT efficacy provided intact T-cell immune system

Statins Impair Antitumor Effects of Rituximab by Inducing Conformational Changes of CD20

Jakub Golab and colleagues found that statins significantly decrease rituximab-mediated complement-dependent cytotoxicity and antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity against B cell lymphoma cells