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Herding behavior in the cryptocurrency market during COVID-19 pandemic: The role of media coverage

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  • Youssef, Mouna
  • Waked, Sami Sobhi

Abstract

This paper examines herding behavior in the cryptocurrency market during the COVID-19 pandemic using daily data and based on static and regime-switching models. Furthermore, we investigate whether herding behavior is affected by the coronavirus media coverage. Based on a sample of the top-43 cryptocurrencies in terms of market capitalization between 2013 and 2020, we find significant evidence of herding for the entire sample period only during high volatility state. Moreover, during the COVID-19 crisis, results suggest that investors in the cryptocurrency market follow the consensus. Finally, the impact of coronavirus media coverage is significant on herding among investors, explaining such behavior in the cryptocurrency market during the COVID-19 crisis. Our findings explain herding determinants that may help investors avoid such comportment, mainly during the crisis.

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  • Youssef, Mouna & Waked, Sami Sobhi, 2022. "Herding behavior in the cryptocurrency market during COVID-19 pandemic: The role of media coverage," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecofin:v:62:y:2022:i:c:s1062940822000997
    DOI: 10.1016/j.najef.2022.101752
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    Cited by:

    1. Jinxin Cui & Aktham Maghyereh, 2022. "Time–frequency co-movement and risk connectedness among cryptocurrencies: new evidence from the higher-order moments before and during the COVID-19 pandemic," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 8(1), pages 1-56, December.
    2. José Antonio Núñez-Mora & Mario Iván Contreras-Valdez & Roberto Joaquín Santillán-Salgado, 2023. "Risk Premium of Bitcoin and Ethereum during the COVID-19 and Non-COVID-19 Periods: A High-Frequency Approach," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-20, October.
    3. Ştefan Cristian Gherghina & Liliana Nicoleta Simionescu, 2023. "Exploring the asymmetric effect of COVID-19 pandemic news on the cryptocurrency market: evidence from nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag approach and frequency domain causality," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 9(1), pages 1-58, December.
    4. Nektarios Gavrilakis & Christos Floros, 2023. "ESG performance, herding behavior and stock market returns: evidence from Europe," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 1-21, March.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Herding behaviour; Cryptocurrencies; COVID-19; Media coverage; Regime-switching;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G10 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets
    • G40 - Financial Economics - - Behavioral Finance - - - General

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