[go: up one dir, main page]
More Web Proxy on the site http://driver.im/
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/tefoso/v167y2021ics0040162521001128.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Bitcoin: A safe haven asset and a winner amid political and economic uncertainties in the US?

Author

Listed:
  • Umar, Muhammad
  • Su, Chi-Wei
  • Rizvi, Syed Kumail Abbas
  • Shao, Xue-Feng
Abstract
Bitcoin is considered to be an exclusive marvel of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and is one of the most sophisticated technological and financial products. It has long been a pivot point of attention for investors who are in pursuit of a safe haven asset. In this paper, we use the wavelet-based quantile-on-quantile method, and the quantile-based Granger causality method, in order to investigate the notion of Bitcoin in actually being a safe-haven asset, amid political and economic uncertainty in the US for the period between 2010:M06, and 2020:M10. Using the Partisan Conflict Index (PCI), and the Economic Policy Uncertainty Index (EPU) as proxies of uncertainties, we find that although Bitcoin effectively appears to be a safe haven asset when uncertainties are on the rise, however, this relationship tends to change during the short- to long-run. In this regard, our sample provides us with a unique opportunity to evaluate the safe haven hypothesis for Bitcoin, amid a time span with three Presidential elections in the US, and recently, an ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, which has been declared as a global pandemic. We have also supplemented our analysis with the bootstrap rolling window causality method, as a measure of robustness. In light of the recent COVID-19 pandemic, and the dynamic economic situation, our work provides valuable knowledge for investors, who wish to construct investment portfolios based on Bitcoin, and also provide insights for regulators about how to regulate the cryptocurrency speculation in an effective manner.

Suggested Citation

  • Umar, Muhammad & Su, Chi-Wei & Rizvi, Syed Kumail Abbas & Shao, Xue-Feng, 2021. "Bitcoin: A safe haven asset and a winner amid political and economic uncertainties in the US?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:167:y:2021:i:c:s0040162521001128
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120680
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162521001128
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120680?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. Su, Chi-Wei & Cai, Xu-Yu & Qin, Meng & Tao, Ran & Umar, Muhammad, 2021. "Can bank credit withstand falling house price in China?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 257-267.
    2. Walther, Thomas & Klein, Tony & Bouri, Elie, 2019. "Exogenous drivers of Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency volatility – A mixed data sampling approach to forecasting," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    3. Fang, Libing & Bouri, Elie & Gupta, Rangan & Roubaud, David, 2019. "Does global economic uncertainty matter for the volatility and hedging effectiveness of Bitcoin?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 29-36.
    4. Muhammad Umar & Xiangfeng Ji & Dervis Kirikkaleli & Muhammad Shahbaz & Xuemei Zhou, 2020. "Environmental cost of natural resources utilization and economic growth: Can China shift some burden through globalization for sustainable development?," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(6), pages 1678-1688, November.
    5. Bouri, Elie & Gupta, Rangan & Roubaud, David, 2019. "Herding behaviour in cryptocurrencies," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 216-221.
    6. Azzimonti, Marina, 2018. "Partisan conflict and private investment," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 114-131.
    7. Elie Bouri & Konstantinos Gkillas & Rangan Gupta, 2020. "Trade uncertainties and the hedging abilities of Bitcoin," Economic Notes, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, vol. 49(3), September.
    8. Cifarelli, Giulio & Paladino, Giovanna, 2010. "Oil price dynamics and speculation: A multivariate financial approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 363-372, March.
    9. Athanasios Triantafyllou & Dimitrios Bakas & Marilou Ioakimidis, 2023. "Commodity price uncertainty as a leading indicator of economic activity," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(4), pages 4194-4219, October.
    10. Troster, Victor & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Uddin, Gazi Salah, 2018. "Renewable energy, oil prices, and economic activity: A Granger-causality in quantiles analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 440-452.
    11. Mark Bils & Peter J. Klenow & Benjamin A. Malin, 2018. "Resurrecting the Role of the Product Market Wedge in Recessions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(4-5), pages 1118-1146, April.
    12. Su, Chi-Wei & Khan, Khalid & Tao, Ran & Umar, Muhammad, 2020. "A review of resource curse burden on inflation in Venezuela," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    13. Su, Chi-Wei & Qin, Meng & Tao, Ran & Umar, Muhammad, 2020. "Financial implications of fourth industrial revolution: Can bitcoin improve prospects of energy investment?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    14. 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.
    15. Aysan, Ahmet Faruk & Demir, Ender & Gozgor, Giray & Lau, Chi Keung Marco, 2019. "Effects of the geopolitical risks on Bitcoin returns and volatility," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 511-518.
    16. Su, Chi-Wei & Qin, Meng & Tao, Ran & Shao, Xue-Feng & Albu, Lucian Liviu & Umar, Muhammad, 2020. "Can Bitcoin hedge the risks of geopolitical events?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    17. Matkovskyy, Roman & Jalan, Akanksha, 2019. "From financial markets to Bitcoin markets: A fresh look at the contagion effect," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 93-97.
    18. Luther, William J. & Salter, Alexander W., 2017. "Bitcoin and the bailout," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 50-56.
    19. Klein, Tony & Pham Thu, Hien & Walther, Thomas, 2018. "Bitcoin is not the New Gold – A comparison of volatility, correlation, and portfolio performance," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 105-116.
    20. Yukun Liu & Aleh Tsyvinski & Xi Wu, 2019. "Common Risk Factors in Cryptocurrency," NBER Working Papers 25882, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    21. Azzimonti, Marina & Talbert, Matthew, 2014. "Polarized business cycles," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 47-61.
    22. Gregory, Allan W. & Hansen, Bruce E., 1996. "Residual-based tests for cointegration in models with regime shifts," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 99-126, January.
    23. Philippas, Dionisis & Philippas, Nikolaos & Tziogkidis, Panagiotis & Rjiba, Hatem, 2020. "Signal-herding in cryptocurrencies," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    24. Christopher McConnell & Yotam Margalit & Neil Malhotra & Matthew Levendusky, 2018. "The Economic Consequences of Partisanship in a Polarized Era," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 62(1), pages 5-18, January.
    25. Gerritsen, Dirk F. & Bouri, Elie & Ramezanifar, Ehsan & Roubaud, David, 2020. "The profitability of technical trading rules in the Bitcoin market," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 34(C).
    26. Jamal Bouoiyour & Refk Selmi & Mark E. Wohar, 2019. "Bitcoin: competitor or complement to gold?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 39(1), pages 186-191.
    27. Sim, Nicholas & Zhou, Hongtao, 2015. "Oil prices, US stock return, and the dependence between their quantiles," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 1-8.
    28. Jiang, Yong & Ren, Yi-Shuai & Ma, Chao-Qun & Liu, Jiang-Long & Sharp, Basil, 2020. "Does the price of strategic commodities respond to U.S. partisan conflict?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    29. Hussain Shahzad, Syed Jawad & Bouri, Elie & Roubaud, David & Kristoufek, Ladislav, 2020. "Safe haven, hedge and diversification for G7 stock markets: Gold versus bitcoin," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 212-224.
    30. Granger, C W J, 1969. "Investigating Causal Relations by Econometric Models and Cross-Spectral Methods," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 37(3), pages 424-438, July.
    31. Bouri, Elie & Molnár, Peter & Azzi, Georges & Roubaud, David & Hagfors, Lars Ivar, 2017. "On the hedge and safe haven properties of Bitcoin: Is it really more than a diversifier?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 192-198.
    32. Theodore Panagiotidis & Thanasis Stengos & Orestis Vravosinos, 2020. "A Principal Component-Guided Sparse Regression Approach for the Determination of Bitcoin Returns," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-10, February.
    33. Cheng, Chak Hung Jack & Hankins, William B. & Chiu, Ching-Wai (Jeremy), 2016. "Does US partisan conflict matter for the Euro area?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 64-67.
    34. Cheng, Hui-Pei & Yen, Kuang-Chieh, 2020. "The relationship between the economic policy uncertainty and the cryptocurrency market," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 35(C).
    35. Yukun Liu & Aleh Tsyvinski, 2018. "Risks and Returns of Cryptocurrency," NBER Working Papers 24877, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    36. Bouri, Elie & Gupta, Rangan, 2021. "Predicting Bitcoin returns: Comparing the roles of newspaper- and internet search-based measures of uncertainty," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    37. Balcilar, Mehmet & Bouri, Elie & Gupta, Rangan & Roubaud, David, 2017. "Can volume predict Bitcoin returns and volatility? A quantiles-based approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 74-81.
    38. White, Reilly & Marinakis, Yorgos & Islam, Nazrul & Walsh, Steven, 2020. "Is Bitcoin a currency, a technology-based product, or something else?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    39. Badshah, Ihsan & Demirer, Riza & Suleman, Muhammad Tahir, 2019. "The effect of economic policy uncertainty on stock-commodity correlations and its implications on optimal hedging," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    40. Mokni, Khaled & Ajmi, Ahdi Noomen & Bouri, Elie & Vo, Xuan Vinh, 2020. "Economic policy uncertainty and the Bitcoin-US stock nexus," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 57.
    41. Su, Chi-Wei & Qin, Meng & Tao, Ran & Umar, Muhammad, 2020. "Does oil price really matter for the wage arrears in Russia?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    42. Baur, Dirk G. & Dimpfl, Thomas & Kuck, Konstantin, 2018. "Bitcoin, gold and the US dollar – A replication and extension," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 103-110.
    43. Katsiampa, Paraskevi, 2017. "Volatility estimation for Bitcoin: A comparison of GARCH models," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 3-6.
    44. Dyhrberg, Anne Haubo, 2016. "Bitcoin, gold and the dollar – A GARCH volatility analysis," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 16(C), pages 85-92.
    45. Koenker, Roger W & Bassett, Gilbert, Jr, 1978. "Regression Quantiles," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(1), pages 33-50, January.
    46. William F. Sharpe, 1964. "Capital Asset Prices: A Theory Of Market Equilibrium Under Conditions Of Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 19(3), pages 425-442, September.
    47. 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.
    48. Kliber, Agata & Marszałek, Paweł & Musiałkowska, Ida & Świerczyńska, Katarzyna, 2019. "Bitcoin: Safe haven, hedge or diversifier? Perception of bitcoin in the context of a country’s economic situation — A stochastic volatility approach," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 524(C), pages 246-257.
    49. Pham, Huy Nguyen Anh & Ramiah, Vikash & Moosa, Nisreen & Huynh, Tam & Pham, Nhi, 2018. "The financial effects of Trumpism," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 264-274.
    50. Li, Jing-Ping & Naqvi, Bushra & Rizvi, Syed Kumail Abbas & Chang, Hsu-Ling, 2021. "Bitcoin: The biggest financial innovation of fourth industrial revolution and a portfolio's efficiency booster," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    51. Yong Jiang & Yi-Shuai Ren & Chao-Qun Ma & Jiang-Long Liu & Basil Sharp, 2018. "Does the price of strategic commodities respond to U.S. Partisan Conflict?," Papers 1810.08396, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2020.
    52. Gupta, Rangan & Pierdzioch, Christian & Selmi, Refk & Wohar, Mark E., 2018. "Does partisan conflict predict a reduction in US stock market (realized) volatility? Evidence from a quantile-on-quantile regression model☆," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 87-96.
    53. Wang, Pengfei & Zhang, Wei & Li, Xiao & Shen, Dehua, 2019. "Is cryptocurrency a hedge or a safe haven for international indices? A comprehensive and dynamic perspective," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 1-18.
    54. Chan, Wing Hong & Le, Minh & Wu, Yan Wendy, 2019. "Holding Bitcoin longer: The dynamic hedging abilities of Bitcoin," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 107-113.
    55. Kedar-Levy, Haim, 2020. "Price discovery in the small and in the large: Momentum and reversal, bubbles, and crashes," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    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. Svetoslav Borisov, 2024. "Bitcoin – Hedge or Speculative Asset: Analysis of Its Role and Nature," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 5, pages 148-170.
    2. Chu, Jeffrey & Chan, Stephen & Zhang, Yuanyuan, 2021. "Bitcoin versus high-performance technology stocks in diversifying against global stock market indices," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 580(C).
    3. Gök, Remzi & Bouri, Elie & Gemici, Eray, 2022. "Can Twitter-based economic uncertainty predict safe-haven assets under all market conditions and investment horizons?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    4. Parthajit Kayal & Purnima Rohilla, 2021. "Bitcoin in the economics and finance literature: a survey," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(7), pages 1-21, July.
    5. Iqbal, Najaf & Fareed, Zeeshan & Wan, Guangcai & Shahzad, Farrukh, 2021. "Asymmetric nexus between COVID-19 outbreak in the world and cryptocurrency market," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    6. Mokni, Khaled & Ajmi, Ahdi Noomen & Bouri, Elie & Vo, Xuan Vinh, 2020. "Economic policy uncertainty and the Bitcoin-US stock nexus," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 57.
    7. Al-Shboul, Mohammad & Assaf, Ata & Mokni, Khaled, 2022. "When bitcoin lost its position: Cryptocurrency uncertainty and the dynamic spillover among cryptocurrencies before and during the COVID-19 pandemic," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    8. Aurelio F. Bariviera & Ignasi Merediz‐Solà, 2021. "Where Do We Stand In Cryptocurrencies Economic Research? A Survey Based On Hybrid Analysis," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(2), pages 377-407, April.
    9. Ma, Chaoqun & Tian, Yonggang & Hsiao, Shisong & Deng, Liurui, 2022. "Monetary policy shocks and Bitcoin prices," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    10. Conlon, Thomas & Corbet, Shaen & McGee, Richard J., 2020. "Are cryptocurrencies a safe haven for equity markets? An international perspective from the COVID-19 pandemic," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    11. Umar, Muhammad & Rizvi, Syed Kumail Abbas & Naqvi, Bushra, 2021. "Dance with the devil? The nexus of fourth industrial revolution, technological financial products and volatility spillovers in global financial system," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    12. Ihsan Erdem Kayral & Ahmed Jeribi & Sahar Loukil, 2023. "Are Bitcoin and Gold a Safe Haven during COVID-19 and the 2022 Russia–Ukraine War?," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-22, April.
    13. Haffar, Adlane & Le Fur, Eric, 2021. "Structural vector error correction modelling of Bitcoin price," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 170-178.
    14. Cynthia Weiyi Cai & Rui Xue & Bi Zhou, 2023. "Cryptocurrency puzzles: a comprehensive review and re-introduction," Journal of Accounting Literature, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 46(1), pages 26-50, June.
    15. Jareño, Francisco & González, María de la O & Tolentino, Marta & Sierra, Karen, 2020. "Bitcoin and gold price returns: A quantile regression and NARDL analysis," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    16. Ángeles Cebrián-Hernández & Enrique Jiménez-Rodríguez, 2021. "Modeling of the Bitcoin Volatility through Key Financial Environment Variables: An Application of Conditional Correlation MGARCH Models," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-16, January.
    17. Yin, Libo & Nie, Jing & Han, Liyan, 2021. "Understanding cryptocurrency volatility: The role of oil market shocks," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 233-253.
    18. Ben Nouir, Jihed & Ben Haj Hamida, Hayet, 2023. "How do economic policy uncertainty and geopolitical risk drive Bitcoin volatility?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    19. Mokni, Khaled & Youssef, Manel & Ajmi, Ahdi Noomen, 2022. "COVID-19 pandemic and economic policy uncertainty: The first test on the hedging and safe haven properties of cryptocurrencies," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    20. Jia, Zhenzhen & Tiwari, Sunil & Zhou, Jianhua & Farooq, Muhammad Umar & Fareed, Zeeshan, 2023. "Asymmetric nexus between Bitcoin, gold resources and stock market returns: Novel findings from quantile estimates," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bitcoin; Covid-19; Economic policy uncertainty; Partisan conflict; Quantile-On-Quantile; US;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C58 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Financial Econometrics
    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

    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:tefoso:v:167:y:2021:i:c:s0040162521001128. 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.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00401625 .

    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.