Kamil Yilmaz

Measuring financial asset return and volatility spillovers, with application to global equity markets

We provide a simple and intuitive measure of interdependence of asset returns and/or volatilities. In particular, we formulate and examine precise and separate measures of return spillovers and volatility spillovers. Our framework facilitates study of both non-crisis and crisis episodes, including trends and bursts in spillovers, and both turn out to be empirically important. In particular, in an analysis of sixteen global equity markets from the early 1990s to the present, we find striking evidence of divergent behavior in the dynamics of return spillovers vs. volatility spillovers: Return spillovers display a gently increasing trend but no bursts, whereas volatility spillovers display no trend but clear bursts.

Markov Chain Test for Time Dependence and Homogeneity: An Analytical and Empirical Evaluation

This paper presents a complete framework for testing procedure based on statistical theory of Markov chains.

Measuring the Dynamics of Global Business Cycle Connectedness

Using a connectedness-measurement technology fundamentally grounded in modern network theory, we measure real output connectedness for a set of six developed countries, 1962-2010. We show that global connectedness is sizable and time-varying over the business cycle, and we study the nature of the time variation relative to the ongoing discussion about the changing nature of the global business cycle. We also show that connectedness corresponding to transmissions to others from the United States and Japan is disproportionately important.

International Business Cycle Spillovers

This paper studies business cycle interdependence among the industrialized countries since 1958. Using the spillover index methodology recently proposed by Diebold and Yilmaz (2009) and based on the generalized VAR framework, I develop an alternative measure of comovement of macroeconomic aggregates across countries. I have several important results. First, the spillover index fluctuates over time, increasing substantially following the post-1973 U.S. recessions. Secondly, the band within which the spillover index fluctuates follows an upward trend since the start of the globalization process in the early 1990s. Thirdly, the spillover index recorded the sharpest increase ever following the peak of the global financial crisis in September 2008, reaching a record level as of December 2008 (See http://data.economicresearchforum.org/erf/bcspill.aspx?lang=en for updates of the spillover plot). I also derive measures of directional spillovers and show that the U.S. (1980s and 2000s) and Japan (1970s and 2000s) are major transmitters of shocks to other countries. Finally, during the 2008-2009 global recession shocks mostly originated from the United States and spread to other industrialized countries.

Integration with the Global Economy: The Case of Turkish Automobile and Consumer Electronics Industries

This paper provides an extensive case study of the Turkish automotive and the consumer electronics industries. Despite a macroeconomic environment that inhibits investment and growth, both industries have achieved remarkable output and productivity growth since the early 1990s. Although there are similarities between the performances of the two industries, there are significant differences between their structures, links with domestic suppliers, technological orientation, and modes of integration with the global economy. The automobile industry is dominated by multinational companies, has a strong domestic supplier base, and has seized the opportunities opened up by the Customs Union by investing in new product and process technology and learning. The consumer electronics industry is dominated by a few, large, domestic firms, and has become competitive in the European market thanks to its geographical proximity, productive domestic labor, and focus on a protected and technologically mature segment of the market, which also helps explain the recent decline in industrys fortunes. These industries could have performed even better had more responsive macroeconomic policies been adopted. It is certain that governments could be more responsive only if far-reaching political/institutional reforms are undertaken by changing the constitution and current political party and election laws in order to establish public control over the political elites.

Estimating Global Bank Network Connectedness

We use lasso methods to shrink, select and estimate the network linking the publicly-traded subset of the worlds top 150 banks, 2003-2014. We characterize static network connectedness using full-sample estimation and dynamic network connectedness using rolling-window estimation. Statistically, we find that global banking connectedness is clearly linked to bank location, not bank assets. Dynamically, we find that global banking connectedness displays both secular and cyclical variation. The secular variation corresponds to gradual increases/decreases during episodes of gradual increases/decreases in global market integration. The cyclical variation corresponds to sharp increases during crises, involving mostly cross-country, as opposed to within-country, bank linkages.

PRIVATISATION AND STOCK MARKET EFFICIENCY: THE BRITISH EXPERIENCE

The authors present evidence that with its emphasis on wide-share-ownership the British privatization program created heavy involvement of small investors in privatized stocks. Using standard market efficiency tests and maximum likelihood estimates of stationary fractional ARIMA models, they show that the pricing of privatized stocks in the London Stock Exchange was indeed inefficient, unlike the rest of the market. Together, these two pieces of evidence suggest that investors, behaving like noise-traders, may be generating this inefficiency. Yet, the authors cannot rule out alternative explanations. Copyright 1997 by Scottish Economic Society.

Estimating global bank network connectedness

We use LASSO methods to shrink, select, and estimate the high‐dimensional network linking the publicly traded subset of the worlds top 150 banks, 2003–2014. We characterize static network connectedness using full‐sample estimation and dynamic network connectedness using rolling‐window estimation. Statically, we find that global bank equity connectedness has a strong geographic component, whereas country sovereign bond connectedness does not. Dynamically, we find that equity connectedness increases during crises, with clear peaks during the Great Financial Crisis and each wave of the subsequent European Debt Crisis, and with movements coming mostly from changes in cross‐country as opposed to within‐country bank linkages.

The EU–Turkey Customs Union Fifteen Years Later: Better, Yet not the Best Alternative

Overall, the Customs Union (CU) has had a positive impact on Turkish economy. Through an increase in import penetration, the CU increased the competitive pressure on Turkish manufacturing industry, forcing it to improve productivity in the long-run. It also contributed to the transformation of the Turkish economy through the implementation of a competition policy. With increased productivity and competitiveness, the manufacturing industry was able to weather the storm during the 2001 economic crisis and in the wake of Chinas entry into world export markets. However, following the successful initial adaptation phase and the significant changes in the European Unions trade policy framework towards preferential trade agreements, the CU has recently started to generate some strains on Turkish trade.

How Connected is the Global Sovereign Credit Risk Network

We apply the Diebold-Yilmaz connectedness index methodology on sovereign credit default swaps (SCDSs) to estimate the network structure of global sovereign credit risk. In particular, using the elastic net estimation method, we separately estimate networks of daily SCDS returns and volatilities for 38 countries between 2009 and 2014. Our results reveal striking differences between the network structures of returns and volatilities. In SCDS return networks, developing and developed countries stand apart in two big clusters. In the case of the SCDS volatility networks, however, we observe regional clusters among emerging market countries along with the developed-country cluster. We also show that global factors are more important than domestic factors in the determination of SCDS returns and volatilities. Finally, emerging market countries are the key generators of connectedness of sovereign credit risk shocks while severely problematic countries as well as developed countries play relatively smaller roles.