IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i6p3212-d517131.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A New Index for Measuring Uncertainty Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Afees A. Salisu

    (Centre for Econometric & Allied Research, University of Ibadan, Ibadan 900001, Nigeria)

  • Ahamuefula E. Ogbonna

    (Centre for Econometric & Allied Research, University of Ibadan, Ibadan 900001, Nigeria
    Department of Statistics, University of Ibadan, Ibadan 900001, Nigeria)

  • Tirimisiyu F. Oloko

    (Centre for Econometric & Allied Research, University of Ibadan, Ibadan 900001, Nigeria
    Department of Economics, University of Ibadan, Ibadan 900001, Nigeria)

  • Idris A. Adediran

    (Centre for Econometric & Allied Research, University of Ibadan, Ibadan 900001, Nigeria
    Department of Economics, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife 220282, Nigeria)

Abstract

This study contributes to the emerging literature offering alternative measures of uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We combine both news-and macro-based trends to construct an index. The former involves the use of Google trends with plausible variants of words used to capture the pandemic, which are combined using principal components analysis to develop a news-based index. For the macro-based index, we identify global factors such as oil price, stock price, Dollar index, commodity index and gold price, and thereafter we obtain the macro-based uncertainty using variants of stochastic volatility models estimated with Bayesian techniques and using a dynamic factor model. Consequently, the new (composite) index is constructed by combining the news- and macro-based indexes using principal components analysis. Our empirical applications of the index to the stock return predictability of the countries hit worst by the pandemic confirm the superiority of the composite index over the existing news-based index in both the in-sample and out-of-sample forecast horizons. Our results are also robust to forecast horizons and competing model choices.

Suggested Citation

  • Afees A. Salisu & Ahamuefula E. Ogbonna & Tirimisiyu F. Oloko & Idris A. Adediran, 2021. "A New Index for Measuring Uncertainty Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-18, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:6:p:3212-:d:517131
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/6/3212/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/6/3212/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Topcu, Mert & Gulal, Omer Serkan, 2020. "The impact of COVID-19 on emerging stock markets," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 36(C).
    2. Alexander Chudik & Kamiar Mohaddes & M. Hashem Pesaran & Mehdi Raissi, 2016. "Long-Run Effects in Large Heterogeneous Panel Data Models with Cross-Sectionally Correlated Errors," Advances in Econometrics, in: Essays in Honor of man Ullah, volume 36, pages 85-135, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    3. Afees Salisu & Idris Adediran, 2021. "Uncertainty Due to Infectious Diseases and Energy Market Volatility," Energy RESEARCH LETTERS, Asia-Pacific Applied Economics Association, vol. 1(1), pages 1-4.
    4. Salisu, Afees A. & Ogbonna, Ahamuefula E. & Adewuyi, Adeolu, 2020. "Google trends and the predictability of precious metals," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    5. Pinglin He & Yulong Sun & Ying Zhang & Tao Li, 2020. "COVID–19’s Impact on Stock Prices Across Different Sectors—An Event Study Based on the Chinese Stock Market," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(10), pages 2198-2212, August.
    6. Hayette Gatfaoui, 2003. "How Does Systematic Risk Impact Stocks ? A Study On the French Financial Market," Risk and Insurance 0308004, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Zhang, Dayong & Hu, Min & Ji, Qiang, 2020. "Financial markets under the global pandemic of COVID-19," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 36(C).
    8. Scott R. Baker & Nicholas Bloom & Steven J. Davis & Stephen J. Terry, 2020. "COVID-Induced Economic Uncertainty," NBER Working Papers 26983, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Jan Ditzen, 2019. "Estimating long run e ects in models with cross-sectional dependence using xtdcce2," CEERP Working Paper Series 007, Centre for Energy Economics Research and Policy, Heriot-Watt University.
    10. Zhao, Ruwei, 2019. "Inferring private information from online news and searches: Correlation and prediction in Chinese stock market," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 528(C).
    11. Haroon, Omair & Rizvi, Syed Aun R., 2020. "COVID-19: Media coverage and financial markets behavior—A sectoral inquiry," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(C).
    12. Clark, Todd E. & West, Kenneth D., 2007. "Approximately normal tests for equal predictive accuracy in nested models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 138(1), pages 291-311, May.
    13. Ciner, Cetin, 2021. "Stock return predictability in the time of COVID-19," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    14. Yaya, OlaOluwa S & Ogbonna, Ephraim A, 2019. "Do we Experience Day-of-the-week Effects in Returns and Volatility of Cryptocurrency?," MPRA Paper 91429, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Chudik, Alexander & Pesaran, M. Hashem, 2015. "Common correlated effects estimation of heterogeneous dynamic panel data models with weakly exogenous regressors," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 188(2), pages 393-420.
    16. Santis, Roberto A. De, 2018. "Unobservable systematic risk, economic activity and stock market," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 51-69.
    17. Scott R Baker & Nicholas Bloom & Steven J Davis & Kyle Kost & Marco Sammon & Tasaneeya Viratyosin & Jeffrey Pontiff, 0. "The Unprecedented Stock Market Reaction to COVID-19," The Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 10(4), pages 742-758.
    18. John Y. Campbell & Samuel B. Thompson, 2008. "Predicting Excess Stock Returns Out of Sample: Can Anything Beat the Historical Average?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(4), pages 1509-1531, July.
    19. Salisu, Afees A. & Oloko, Tirimisiyu F., 2015. "Modeling oil price–US stock nexus: A VARMA–BEKK–AGARCH approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 1-12.
    20. Afees A. Salisu & Ahamuefula Ephraim Ogbonna & Paul Adeoye Omosebi, 2018. "Does the choice of estimator matter for forecasting? A revisit," Working Papers 053, Centre for Econometric and Allied Research, University of Ibadan.
    21. Zhang, Jilin & Lai, Yongzeng & Lin, Jianghong, 2017. "The day-of-the-Week effects of stock markets in different countries," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 47-62.
    22. Jan Ditzen, 2018. "Estimating dynamic common-correlated effects in Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 18(3), pages 585-617, September.
    23. Alok Kumar Mishra & Badri Narayan Rath & Aruna Kumar Dash, 2020. "Does the Indian Financial Market Nosedive because of the COVID-19 Outbreak, in Comparison to after Demonetisation and the GST?," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(10), pages 2162-2180, August.
    24. Chan, Joshua C.C. & Grant, Angelia L., 2016. "Modeling energy price dynamics: GARCH versus stochastic volatility," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 182-189.
    25. Lakonishok, Josef & Shapiro, Alan C., 1986. "Systematic risk, total risk and size as determinants of stock market returns," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 115-132, March.
    26. Okorie, David Iheke & Lin, Boqiang, 2021. "Stock markets and the COVID-19 fractal contagion effects," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    27. Olubusoye, Olusanya E & Yaya, OlaOluwa S. & Ogbonna, Ahamuefula, 2021. "An Information-Based Index of Uncertainty and the predictability of Energy Prices," MPRA Paper 109839, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    28. Salisu, Afees A. & Swaray, Raymond & Oloko, Tirimisiyu F., 2019. "Improving the predictability of the oil–US stock nexus: The role of macroeconomic variables," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 153-171.
    29. K.P. Prabheesh & Rakesh Padhan & Bhavesh Garg, 2021. "COVID-19 and the Oil Price – Stock Market Nexus - Evidence From Net Oil-Importing Countries," Energy RESEARCH LETTERS, Asia-Pacific Applied Economics Association, vol. 1(1), pages 1-4.
    30. Albulescu, Claudiu Tiberiu, 2021. "COVID-19 and the United States financial markets’ volatility," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    31. Chronopoulos, Dimitris K. & Papadimitriou, Fotios I. & Vlastakis, Nikolaos, 2018. "Information demand and stock return predictability," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 59-74.
    32. Salisu, Afees A. & Vo, Xuan Vinh, 2020. "Predicting stock returns in the presence of COVID-19 pandemic: The role of health news," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    33. Lahmiri, Salim & Bekiros, Stelios, 2020. "The impact of COVID-19 pandemic upon stability and sequential irregularity of equity and cryptocurrency markets," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    34. Erdem, Orhan, 2020. "Freedom and stock market performance during Covid-19 outbreak," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 36(C).
    35. Dinh Hoang Bach Phan & Paresh Kumar Narayan, 2020. "Country Responses and the Reaction of the Stock Market to COVID-19—a Preliminary Exposition," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(10), pages 2138-2150, August.
    36. Westerlund, Joakim & Narayan, Paresh, 2016. "Testing for predictability in panels of any time series dimension," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 1162-1177.
    37. Dutta, Anupam & Das, Debojyoti & Jana, R.K. & Vo, Xuan Vinh, 2020. "COVID-19 and oil market crash: Revisiting the safe haven property of gold and Bitcoin," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Semei Coronado & Jose N. Martinez & Victor Gualajara & Rafael Romero-Meza & Omar Rojas, 2023. "Time-Varying Granger Causality of COVID-19 News on Emerging Financial Markets: The Latin American Case," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-18, January.
    2. Salisu, Afees A. & Ayinde, Taofeek O. & Gupta, Rangan & Wohar, Mark E., 2022. "Global evidence of the COVID-19 shock on real equity prices and real exchange rates: A counterfactual analysis with a threshold-augmented GVAR model," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PA).
    3. Ioannis Dokas & Georgios Oikonomou & Minas Panagiotidis & Eleftherios Spyromitros, 2023. "Macroeconomic and Uncertainty Shocks’ Effects on Energy Prices: A Comprehensive Literature Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-35, February.
    4. Elie Bouri & Riza Demirer & Rangan Gupta & Jacobus Nel, 2021. "COVID-19 Pandemic and Investor Herding in International Stock Markets," Risks, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-11, September.
    5. Salisu, Afees A. & Demirer, Riza & Gupta, Rangan, 2022. "Financial turbulence, systemic risk and the predictability of stock market volatility," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    6. Olubusoye, Olusanya E & Akintande, Olalekan J. & Yaya, OlaOluwa S. & Ogbonna, Ahamuefula & Adenikinju, Adeola F., 2021. "Energy Pricing during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Predictive Information-Based Uncertainty Indexes with Machine Learning Algorithm," MPRA Paper 109838, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Salisu, Afees A. & Adediran, Idris & Omoke, Philip C. & Tchankam, Jean Paul, 2023. "Gold and tail risks," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Salissu, Afees & Raheem, Ibrahim & Eigbiremolen, Godstime, 2020. "The behaviour of U.S. stocks to financial and health risks," MPRA Paper 105354, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Raifu, Isiaka Akande & Ogbonna, Ahamuefula E, 2021. "Safe-haven Effectiveness of Cryptocurrency: Evidence from Stock Markets of COVID-19 worst-hit African Countries," MPRA Paper 113139, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Salisu, Afees A. & Vo, Xuan Vinh & Lucey, Brian, 2021. "Gold and US sectoral stocks during COVID-19 pandemic," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    4. Yousaf, Imran, 2021. "Risk transmission from the COVID-19 to metals and energy markets," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    5. Salisu, Afees A. & Shaik, Muneer, 2022. "Islamic Stock indices and COVID-19 pandemic," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 282-293.
    6. Tiwari, Aviral Kumar & Abakah, Emmanuel Joel Aikins & Karikari, Nana Kwasi & Gil-Alana, Luis Alberiko, 2022. "The outbreak of COVID-19 and stock market liquidity: Evidence from emerging and developed equity markets," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    7. Jialei Jiang & Eun-Mi Park & Seong-Taek Park, 2021. "The Impact of the COVID-19 on Economic Sustainability—A Case Study of Fluctuation in Stock Prices for China and South Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-17, June.
    8. Adediran, Idris A. & Yinusa, Olalekan D. & Lakhani, Kanwal Hammad, 2021. "Where lies the silver lining when uncertainty hang dark clouds over the global financial markets?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    9. Padhan, Rakesh & Prabheesh, K.P., 2021. "The economics of COVID-19 pandemic: A survey," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 220-237.
    10. Salisu, Afees A. & Vo, Xuan Vinh, 2021. "Firm-specific news and the predictability of Consumer stocks in Vietnam," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    11. Afees A. Salisu & Abdulsalam Abidemi Sikiru & Philip C. Omoke, 2023. "COVID-19 pandemic and financial innovations," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 57(4), pages 3885-3904, August.
    12. Salisu, Afees A. & Akanni, Lateef & Raheem, Ibrahim, 2020. "The COVID-19 global fear index and the predictability of commodity price returns," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(C).
    13. Harjoto, Maretno Agus & Rossi, Fabrizio & Lee, Robert & Sergi, Bruno S., 2021. "How do equity markets react to COVID-19? Evidence from emerging and developed countries," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    14. Afees A. Salisu & Ibrahim D. Raheem & Godstime O. Eigbiremolen, 2022. "The behaviour of U.S. stocks to financial and health risks," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(4), pages 4607-4618, October.
    15. Shaista Wasiuzzaman, 2022. "Impact of COVID-19 on the Saudi stock market: analysis of return, volatility and trading volume," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(4), pages 350-363, July.
    16. Olubusoye, Olusanya E & Yaya, OlaOluwa S. & Ogbonna, Ahamuefula, 2021. "An Information-Based Index of Uncertainty and the predictability of Energy Prices," MPRA Paper 109839, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Ștefan Cristian Gherghina & Daniel Ștefan Armeanu & Camelia Cătălina Joldeș, 2020. "Stock Market Reactions to COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak: Quantitative Evidence from ARDL Bounds Tests and Granger Causality Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-35, September.
    18. Narayan, Paresh Kumar & Devpura, Neluka & Wang, Hua, 2020. "Japanese currency and stock market—What happened during the COVID-19 pandemic?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 191-198.
    19. Wang, Zhixuan & Dong, Yanli & Liu, Ailan, 2022. "How does China's stock market react to supply chain disruptions from COVID-19?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    20. Gächter, Martin & Huber, Florian & Meier, Martin, 2022. "A shot for the US economy," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PA).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:6:p:3212-:d:517131. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.