We characterize asset return linkages during periods of stress by an extremal dependence measure. Contrary to correlation analysis, this nonparametric measure is not predisposed toward the normal distribution and can allow for nonlinear relationships. Our estimates for the G-5 countries suggest...

In all empirical-network studies, the observed properties of economic networks are informative only if compared with a well-defined null model that can quantitatively predict the behavior of such properties in constrained graphs. However, predictions of the available null-model methods can be...

This paper contributes to the understanding of the international financial linkages created by US banks by looking at the geographical composition and structure of the balance sheet of foreign branches. The empirical investigation, which is based on a novel dataset containing balance sheet...

Globalization and technological innovations create investment opportunities for firms worldwide. In fact, while firms pursue foreign direct investment (FDI) opportunities on a global basis, countries compete to attract these flows. Investment decisions by firms depend on complex and distinct...

This paper investigates whether the country-level financial environment in which microfinance institutions (MFIs) have to work affects their operations. In particular, we argue that the efficiency of MFIs is determined by the extent to which financial markets of countries are developed. On the...

Despite initial improvements in macroeconomic data dissemination following the emerging markets crises of the late-1990s, large differences among countries remain. To identify the factors behind such differences, this paper develops measures of the frequency and timeliness of macroeconomic data...

This paper analyzes the informational efficiency of oil market during the last three decades, and examines changes in informational efficiency with major geopolitical events, such as terrorist attacks, financial crisis and other important events. The series under study is the daily prices of...

In this paper, we show that the comovement of bond yields in the EU before and during the European sovereign debt crisis is frequency-dependent. Using frequency cohesion and wavelet coherence, we demonstrate that the comovement is concentrated mainly at low frequencies. The comovement decreased...

This study applies wavelet coherency analysis to explore the relationship between the U.S. economic growth volatility, and income and wealth inequality measures over the period 1917 to 2015 and 1962 to 2014. We consider the relationship between output volatility during positive and negative...

Within currency unions, the conventional wisdom is that there should be a high degree of macroeconomic synchronicity between the constituent parts of the union. But this conjecture has never been formally tested by comparing sample of monetary unions with a control sample of countries that do...