IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v248y2025ics0165176525000552.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Knight in shining armor: Ambiguity and gold prices

Author

Listed:
  • Karahan, Cenk C.

Abstract

Knightian uncertainty, or ambiguity, posits that investors prefer known risks over unknown risks, a behavior referred to as ambiguity aversion. This study examines the influence of ambiguity on gold’s behavior as a safe-haven asset, focusing on its impact on the net convenience yield — a key measure of the intrinsic value of holding physical gold. Using a market-based measure of ambiguity rooted in the volatility of probabilities, the analysis finds a consistent and significant positive effect on gold’s convenience yield. The findings remain robust across alternative uncertainty measures, model specifications, and extended time periods, including an ambiguity measure derived from the US Dollar index and daily range spot gold data. This study underscores the superiority of the market-based ambiguity measure over traditional uncertainty proxies and highlights the role of ambiguity aversion in reinforcing gold’s safe-haven status during periods of heightened uncertainty.

Suggested Citation

  • Karahan, Cenk C., 2025. "Knight in shining armor: Ambiguity and gold prices," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 248(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:248:y:2025:i:c:s0165176525000552
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2025.112218
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176525000552
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2025.112218?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dirk G. Baur & Brian M. Lucey, 2010. "Is Gold a Hedge or a Safe Haven? An Analysis of Stocks, Bonds and Gold," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 45(2), pages 217-229, May.
    2. Anderson, Evan W. & Ghysels, Eric & Juergens, Jennifer L., 2009. "The impact of risk and uncertainty on expected returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 233-263, November.
    3. Wu, Shan & Tong, Mu & Yang, Zhongyi & Derbali, Abdelkader, 2019. "Does gold or Bitcoin hedge economic policy uncertainty?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 171-178.
    4. Larry G. Epstein & Martin Schneider, 2008. "Ambiguity, Information Quality, and Asset Pricing," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(1), pages 197-228, February.
    5. Garman, Mark B & Klass, Michael J, 1980. "On the Estimation of Security Price Volatilities from Historical Data," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 53(1), pages 67-78, January.
    6. Easley, David & O'Hara, Maureen, 2010. "Liquidity and valuation in an uncertain world," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(1), pages 1-11, July.
    7. Scott R. Baker & Nicholas Bloom & Steven J. Davis, 2016. "Measuring Economic Policy Uncertainty," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(4), pages 1593-1636.
    8. Kyle Jurado & Sydney C. Ludvigson & Serena Ng, 2015. "Measuring Uncertainty," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(3), pages 1177-1216, March.
    9. Bouoiyour, Jamal & Selmi, Refk & Wohar, Mark E., 2018. "Measuring the response of gold prices to uncertainty: An analysis beyond the mean," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 105-116.
    10. Baur, Dirk G. & McDermott, Thomas K., 2010. "Is gold a safe haven? International evidence," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 1886-1898, August.
    11. Joscha Beckmann & Theo Berger & Robert Czudaj, 2019. "Gold price dynamics and the role of uncertainty," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(4), pages 663-681, April.
    12. Izhakian, Yehuda, 2020. "A theoretical foundation of ambiguity measurement," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    13. Bilgin, Mehmet Huseyin & Gozgor, Giray & Lau, Chi Keung Marco & Sheng, Xin, 2018. "The effects of uncertainty measures on the price of gold," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 1-7.
    14. Itamar Drechsler, 2013. "Uncertainty, Time-Varying Fear, and Asset Prices," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(5), pages 1843-1889, October.
    15. Brenner, Menachem & Izhakian, Yehuda, 2018. "Asset pricing and ambiguity: Empirical evidence⁎," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(3), pages 503-531.
    16. Gozgor, Giray & Lau, Chi Keung Marco & Sheng, Xin & Yarovaya, Larisa, 2019. "The role of uncertainty measures on the returns of gold," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    17. Pindyck, Robert S, 1993. "The Present Value Model of Rational Commodity Pricing," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 103(418), pages 511-530, May.
    18. Daniel Ellsberg, 1961. "Risk, Ambiguity, and the Savage Axioms," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 75(4), pages 643-669.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Chen, Peng & Miao, Xinru & Tee, Kai-Hong, 2023. "Do gold prices respond more to uncertainty shocks at the zero lower bound?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(PA).
    2. Chiang, Thomas C., 2022. "The effects of economic uncertainty, geopolitical risk and pandemic upheaval on gold prices," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    3. Qin, Meng & Su, Chi-Wei & Tao, Ran & Umar, Muhammad, 2020. "Is factionalism a push for gold price?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    4. Aït-Sahalia, Yacine & Matthys, Felix & Osambela, Emilio & Sircar, Ronnie, 2025. "When uncertainty and volatility are disconnected: Implications for asset pricing and portfolio performance," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 248(C).
    5. Aktham Maghyereh & Hussein Abdoh, 2022. "Can news-based economic sentiment predict bubbles in precious metal markets?," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 8(1), pages 1-29, December.
    6. Golitsis, Petros & Gkasis, Pavlos & Bellos, Sotirios K., 2022. "Dynamic spillovers and linkages between gold, crude oil, S&P 500, and other economic and financial variables. Evidence from the USA," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    7. Tengfei Zhang, 2020. "Manager Uncertainty and Cross-Sectional Stock Returns," 2020 Papers pzh934, Job Market Papers.
    8. Hasan, Md. Bokhtiar & Kabir Hassan, M. & Gider, Zeynullah & Tahsin Rafia, Humaira & Rashid, Mamunur, 2023. "Searching hedging instruments against diverse global risks and uncertainties," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    9. Baur, Dirk G. & Smales, Lee A., 2020. "Hedging geopolitical risk with precious metals," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    10. Tanin, Tauhidul Islam & Sarker, Ashutosh & Brooks, Robert & Do, Hung Xuan, 2022. "Does oil impact gold during COVID-19 and three other recent crises?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    11. Bouoiyour, Jamal & Selmi, Refk & Wohar, Mark E., 2018. "Measuring the response of gold prices to uncertainty: An analysis beyond the mean," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 105-116.
    12. Bonato, Matteo & Gupta, Rangan & Lau, Chi Keung Marco & Wang, Shixuan, 2020. "Moments-based spillovers across gold and oil markets," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    13. Yilanci, Veli & Kilci, Esra N., 2021. "The role of economic policy uncertainty and geopolitical risk in predicting prices of precious metals: Evidence from a time-varying bootstrap causality test," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    14. Wagner, Moritz & Wei, Xiaopeng, 2024. "Ambiguous investor sentiment," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 67(PA).
    15. Yacine Aït-Sahalia & Felix Matthys & Emilio Osambela & Ronnie Sircar, 2021. "When Uncertainty and Volatility Are Disconnected: Implications for Asset Pricing and Portfolio Performance," NBER Working Papers 29195, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Gozgor, Giray & Lau, Chi Keung Marco & Sheng, Xin & Yarovaya, Larisa, 2019. "The role of uncertainty measures on the returns of gold," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    17. Chen, Qiang & Han, Yu, 2023. "Options market ambiguity and its information content," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    18. Selmi, Refk & Mensi, Walid & Hammoudeh, Shawkat & Bouoiyour, Jamal, 2018. "Is Bitcoin a hedge, a safe haven or a diversifier for oil price movements? A comparison with gold," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 787-801.
    19. Borup, Daniel & Schütte, Erik Christian Montes, 2022. "Asset pricing with data revisions," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 59(PB).
    20. Cui, Moyang & Wong, Wing-Keung & Wisetsri, Worakamol & Mabrouk, Fatma & Muda, Iskandar & Li, Zeyun & Hassan, Marria, 2023. "Do oil, gold and metallic price volatilities prove gold as a safe haven during COVID-19 pandemic? Novel evidence from COVID-19 data," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gold; Safe-haven assets; Ambiguity; Knightian uncertainty; Ambiguity aversion; Convenience yield;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G40 - Financial Economics - - Behavioral Finance - - - General
    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • Q02 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General - - - Commodity Market

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:eee:ecolet:v:248:y:2025:i:c:s0165176525000552. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolet .

    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.