Financial connectedness between Eurozone core & periphery: a disaggregated view

This paper examines the financial stress interconnectedness among GIIPS economies and Germany. Based on market level financial stress indices, it examines the stress transmission process as well as the causal network relationships in banking sector, bond, money and stock markets. The period under investigation, 2001-2013, allows to test the effects of financial crisis of 2008 as well as the subsequent European sovereign crisis. Using two alternative techniques for connectedness analysis, our evidence suggests that the peripheral economies of Italy and Spain play a highly significant role in the stress transmission in all markets, especially in the cases of banks and equity markets. Moreover, we visualize our results using network analysis. Contrary to common wisdom, Portugal, Ireland, and mainly Greece, do not seem to have an important role in amplifying stress levels

Does the Left spend more? An econometric survey of partisan politics

This study provides a quantitative review of the empirical literature on partisan politics. Given the voluminous work on this subject, we focus on the relationship between government ideology and public spending. By exploiting a dataset of 800 estimates from papers published between 1992 and 2018, we find no evidence of publication bias. Taking into account the differences in the various categories of spending, proxies of ideologies, estimations methods, as well as, data and publication characteristics, we find evidence of a small positive and significant effect

Dynamic spillover effects across petroleum spot and futures volatilities, trading volume and open interest

YesThis paper examines the existence of dynamic spillover effects across petroleum based commodities and among spot-futures volatilities, trading volume and open interest. Realized volatilities of spot-futures markets are used as inputs to estimate a VAR model following Diebold and Yilmaz (2014, 2015) and distinguish dynamic spillovers in total and net effects. Results reveal the existence of large and time-varying spillovers among the spot-futures volatilities and across petroleum-based commodities when examined pairwise. In addition, speculative pressures, as reflected by futures trading volume, and hedging pressures, as reflected by open interest, are shown to transmit large and persistent spillovers to the spot and futures volatilities of crude oil and heating oil-gasoline markets, respectively

Factors contributing to the strength of national patent protection and enforcement after TRIPS

YesIn this paper we study the determinants of the strength of patent enforcement in 43 member countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO) between 1998 and 2011, a period after the signing of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement. We do so by building on and expanding the seminal work of Ginarte and Park (1997) on the pre-TRIPS determinants of patent rights in the years 1960-1990. We find that in the years after TRIPS was signed, the strength of patent enforcement of a country is positively determined by two variables that signify the usage of the patent and intellectual property system, and the number of patent and trademark applications. We also find that the level of research and development expenditure, the quality of human capital, and the level of development of a country have positive effects on the strength of the enforcement of patent law in practice. Intellectual property rights enforcement is one of the key investment-related policies included in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Investment Policy Framework for Sustainable Development. Identifying the determinants of strong patent systems will help policymakers at the national and supranational levels to design and implement effective policies that strengthen national patent systems, thereby enhancing economic benefits such as greater levels of commercialization of intangible assets and greater levels of international trade and investment

The effect of banking supervision on central bank preferences: Evidence from panel data

YesWe examine the effects of banking supervisory architecture on central bank preferences, quantified through a recently proposed measure of central bank conservatism. Using a dynamic panel data specification we document that central banks serving both monetary policy and banking supervision functions are less inflation conservative than those with only a price stability mandate

The financial and fiscal stress interconnectedness : the case of G5 economies

In this paper, we focus on the financial and fiscal stress transmission for the G5 economies. Using financial and fiscal stress indexes, we assess the spillovers within each economy, as well as the cross-sectional effects. Two supplementary methodologies, measuring the degree of interconnectedness, are employed. Our findings indicate that the interactions between these two kinds of distress are intensive, especially during and after the Global Financial Crisis outbreak. The above reiterates the necessity for coordinated macroprudential policies, as a means to confine the adverse effects of excessive financial and fiscal stress

Identifying networks in social media: The case of #Grexit

We examine the intensity of ‘#Grexit’ usage in Twitter during a period of economic and financial turbulence. Using a frequency-analysis technique, we illustrate that we can extract detailed information from social media data. This allows us to map the networks of interest as it is reflected in Twitter. Our findings identify high-interest in Grexit from Twitter users in key peripheral countries, core Eurozone members as well as core EU member states outside the Eurozone. Overall, our study presents a useful tool for identifying clusters. This is part of a new research agenda utilising the information extracted from big data available via social media channels