Nonlinear Dependence and Spillovers between Currency Markets and Global Economic Variables

Abstract

The widespread integration and growing systemic dependence among currency, stock, and commodity markets render these markets often very vulnerable to shocks and at risk of collapse at the same time. As a result, these trends threaten the sustainability of the entire financial system. In this study, we aim to explore the spillovers and nonlinear dependencies between the seven major foreign exchange rates, crude oil and gold prices, a global stock price index, and oil and stock implied volatility indices as proxy variables for global risk factors by employing a directional spillover network approach. We also use a multi-scale decomposition method and nonlinear causality test between these variables to capture multi-level relationships at short and long horizons. The major findings are summarized as follows. First, from the multi-scale decomposition analysis, we identify that Granger causality test results and the direction and strength of return spillovers change with the level of decomposition. Second, the results of nonlinear causality tests show variation in both the significance and direction of Granger causality relationships between the decomposed currency and other series at different timescales, especially for the decomposed oil, gold, and OVX series. Third, the measured directional spillover indices identify the Euro–Dollar exchange rate as the largest contributor of connectedness to the other series.