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Despite the growing recognition of the complex interplay between macroeconomic shock indexes and stock market dynamics, there is a significant research gap concerning their interconnectedness and return spillovers in the context of the African stock market. This leaves much to be desired, given that the financial market in Africa is arguably one of the most preferred destinations for hedge and portfolio diversification (Alagidede, 2008; Anyikwa and Le Roux, 2020). Further, like other financial markets across the globe, the increased capital flow, coupled with declining information asymmetry in Africa, has deepened intra and inter-sectoral integration within and across national borders. This has, thus, increased the susceptibility of financial markets in Africa to spillover of shocks from other sectors and jurisdictions. Additionally, while previous studies have investigated these factors individually (Asafo-Adjei et al., 2020), with much emphasis on developed markets, an all-encompassing examination of spillovers and the connectedness between the aforementioned macroeconomic shock indexes and stock market returns remains largely unexplored. This study happens to be the first to consider the impact of each of the indexes on stock returns in Africa, with evidence spanning from May 2007 to April 2023, covering notable global crisis episodes such as the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia–Ukraine war.

This study employs the novel quantile vector autoregression (QVAR) model, making it the first of its kind in literature. By applying the QVAR, the study captures the potential nonlinear and asymmetric relationship between stock returns and the factors of interest across different quantiles, i.e. bearish, normal and bullish market conditions. Thus, the approach allows for a more accurate and nuanced examination of the tail dependence and extreme events, providing insights into the behaviour of the variables under extreme events.

The study revealed that connectedness and spillovers intensified under bearish and bullish market conditions. It was also observed that, among the macroeconomic shock indicators, FSI exerted the highest influence on stock returns in Africa in both bullish and normal market conditions. Across the various market regimes, the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) and the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) were net receiver of shocks.

This study happens to be the first to consider the impact of each of the indexes on stock returns in Africa, with evidence spanning from May 2007 to April 2023, covering notable global crisis episodes such as the GFC, the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia–Ukraine war. On the methodology front, this study employs the novel QVAR model, making it one of the few studies in recent literature to apply the said method.

The purpose of this study is to provide down-to-earth macroeconomic policy implications from the up-to-date estimates of the trade system in the OECD countries. Understanding on the linkages between the world trade mechanism and the macroeconomy is of utmost importance for the post-crisis managements of the world economy, the major points regarding the macroeconomic policy implications are as follows.

(1) For the majority of the OECD countries, fiscal expansion is likely to encourage the world trade when it is designed in the way to increase private consumption, in fact, only in a few countries fiscal expansion can increase the world trade volumes in its own right.

(2) Currency depreciation might be an attractive policy option for improving trade balances in the cases of the 9 OECD countries.

(3) There is a clear evidence of pricing-to-market with cross-country diversity, implying that import or domestic price robustness from the external forces.

(1) A concern often expressed in relation to cryptocurrencies is the environmental impact associated with increasing energy consumption and mining pollution. Controversy remains regarding how environmental attention and public concerns adversely affect cryptocurrency prices. Therefore, the paper aims to introduce the index of cryptocurrency environmental attention (ICEA), which aims to capture the relative extent of media discussions surrounding the environmental impact of cryptocurrencies. (2) The impacts of cryptocurrency environmental attention on long-term macro-financial markets and economic development remain part of undeveloped research fields. Based on these factors, the paper will further examine the effects of the ICEA on financial markets or economic developments.

(1) The paper introduces a new index to capture cryptocurrency environmental attention in terms of the cryptocurrency response to major related events through gathering a large amount of news stories around cryptocurrency environmental concerns – i.e. >778.2 million news items from the LexisNexis News & Business database, which can be considered as Big Data – and analysing that rich dataset using variety of quantitative techniques. (2) The vector error correction model (VECM) and structural VECM (SVECM) [impulse response function (IRF), forecast error variance decomposition (FEVD) and historical decomposition (HD)] are useful for characterising the dynamic relationships between ICEA and aggregate economic activities.

(1) The paper has developed a new measure of attention to sustainability concerns of cryptocurrency markets' growth, ICEA. (2) ICEA has a significantly positive relationship with the UCRY indices, volatility index (VIX), Brent crude oil (BCO) and Bitcoin. (3) ICEA has a significantly negative relationship with the global economic policy uncertainty (GlobalEPU) and global temperature uncertainty (GTU). Moreover, ICEA has a significantly positive relationship with the industrial production (IP) in the short term, whilst having a significantly negative relationship in the long term. (4) The HD of the ICEA displays higher linkages between environmental attention, Bitcoin and UCRY indices around key events that significantly change the prices of digital assets.

The ICEA is significant in the analysis of whether cryptocurrency markets are sustainable regarding energy consumption requirements and negative contributions to climate change. Understanding of the broader impacts of cryptocurrency environmental concerns on cryptocurrency market volatility, uncertainty and environmental sustainability should be considered and developed. Moreover, the paper aims to point out future research and policy legislation directions. Notably, the paper poses the question of how cryptocurrency can be made more sustainable and environmentally friendly and how governments' cryptocurrency policies can address the cryptocurrency markets.

(1) The paper develops a cryptocurrency environmental attention index based on news coverage that captures the extent to which environmental sustainability concerns are discussed in conjunction with cryptocurrencies. (2) The paper empirically investigates the impacts of cryptocurrency environmental attention on other financial or economic variables [cryptocurrency uncertainty (UCRY) indices, Bitcoin, VIX, GlobalEPU, BCO, GTU index and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development IP index]. (3) The paper provides insights into making the most effective use of online databases in the development of new indices for financial research.

Whilst blockchain technology has a number of useful implications and has great potential to transform several industries, issues of high-energy consumption and CO2 pollution regarding cryptocurrency have become some of the main areas of criticism, raising questions about the sustainability of cryptocurrencies. These results are essential for both policy-makers and for academics, since the results highlight an urgent need for research addressing the key issues, such as the growth of carbon produced in the creation of this new digital currency. The results also are important for investors concerned with the ethical implications and environmental impacts of their investment choices.

(1) The paper provides an efficient new proxy for cryptocurrency and robust empirical evidence for future research concerning the impact of environmental issues on cryptocurrency markets. (2) The study successfully links cryptocurrency environmental attention to the financial markets, economic developments and other volatility and uncertainty measures, which has certain novel implications for the cryptocurrency literature. (3) The empirical findings of the paper offer useful and up-to-date insights for investors, guiding policy-makers, regulators and media, enabling the ICEA to evolve into a barometer in the cryptocurrency era and play a role in, for example, environmental policy development and investment portfolio optimisation.

This study aims to analyze the effect of change in trading volume on the short-term mean reversion of the stock price in the Korean stock market. Through the variance ratio test, this paper finds that the market shows the mean reversion pattern after 2000, but not before. This study also confirms that the mean reversion property is significantly reduced if the effect of change in trading volume is excluded from the return of a stock with a significant contemporaneous correlation between return and change in trading volume in the post-2000 market. The results appear in both the Korea Composite Stock Price Index and Korea Securities Dealers Automated Quotation. This phenomenon stems from the significance of the return response to change in trading volume per se and not the sign of the response. Additionally, the findings imply that the trading volume has a term structure because of the mean reversion of the trading volume and the return also has a partial term structure because of the contemporaneous correlation between return and change in trading volume. This conclusion suggests that considering the short-term impact of change in trading volume enables a more efficient observation of the market and avoidance of asset misallocation.

This paper reports on how micro-learning design principles are being trialled in an Australian and a Malaysian university to make online courses more accessible and attractive, and a more positive experience, with the aim of increasing student success. Central to this approach is segmenting materials into “bite-size” instalments by way of short micro-lecture presentations and reducing other content. The aim of this “less is more” strategy is to reduce unnecessary cognitive load as an impediment to learning so that focus can shift to prioritising the most essential skills and content. The purpose of this trial is to explore the efficacy of micro-learning as a means for increasing student engagement and learning.

The trials involved a mixed mode methodology drawing on qualitative and ratings data from course satisfaction surveys and records on grades and completion.

To date, results have shown significant increases in student engagement and satisfaction, and also performance. Our application of micro-learning included reducing volume of content based on its practical value, use of novelty (e.g. infusing guest presenter input) and design of practical and collaborative student activities.

Early results are encouraging regarding apparent utility for engaging learners and ease of application, i.e. implementability and transference potential. However, the rapidly expanding area of online learning requires further research to establish a well-validated evidence base for effective online teaching practices.

The findings are relevant to universities involved in online and blended learning. Micro-learning design methods show promise in being able to address major engagement barriers including cognitive overload.

More students are struggling with learning in today's social environment brought about with the massification of higher education. Micro-learning seeks to address major barriers these learners face with methods that go beyond traditional teaching practices.

Findings here are encouraging and contribute to existing understanding on ways to increase learner engagement in the competitive and fast-growing area of online learning for universities globally.

This study aims at investigating how energy strategies of China impact its energy shipping import through a strategic maritime link, the Straits of Malacca and Singapore (SOMS).

Vector error-correction modelling (VECM) is applied to examine the key energy strategies of China influencing crude oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipping import via the SOMS. Strategies investigated include oil storage expansions, government-setting targets to motivate domestic gas production, pipeline projects to diversify natural gas import routes and commercial strategies to ensure oil and gas accessibility and cost-effectiveness.

For the crude oil sector, building up oil storage and diversifying oil import means, routes and sources were found effective to mitigate impacts of consumption surges and price shocks. For the LNG sector, domestic production expansion effectively reduces LNG import. However, pipeline gas import growth is inefficient to relieve LNG shipping import dependency. Furthermore, energy companies have limited flexibility to adjust LNG shipping import volumes via the SOMS even under increased import prices and transport costs.

As the natural gas demand of China continues expanding, utilisation rates of existing pipeline networks need to be enhanced. Besides, domestic production expansion and diversification of LNG import sources and means are crucial.

This study is among the first in the literature using a quantitative approach to investigate how energy strategies implemented in a nation impact its energy shipping volumes via the SOMS, which is one of the most important maritime links that support 40% of the global trades.

In this study, we analyzed whether the expiration day effect of domestic single stock futures exists. One-minute stock prices and trading volume by trader types is used. Data ranges from May 2008 to June 2016. The expiration day effects are measured by price reversal, price shock, volatility effect, and volume effect. Since the expiration day of single stock futures is on the second Thursday of each month, we analyzed whether the expiration day effects differ between expiration Thursday and non-expiration Thursday. The price reversal effect is evident in Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Steel, and the price shock effect is evident for KT and KT&G. However, price reversals and price shocks are not generally found in other stocks. On the other hand, in most stocks (16 out of 22), the volatility effect variables were statistically significantly larger on the expiration Thursday than non-expiration Thursday. The expiration day effects of single stocks are evident in the trading volume. First of all, trading volume increased significantly on expiration Thursday than non-expiration Thursday. In particular, the trading-volume shares of institutional investors and foreign investors increase and the share of individual investors is decreasing. This suggests that the increase in trading volume on expiration Thursday is mainly due to the increase in the trading-volume shares of institutional investors and foreign investors, who are supposed to be in the information superiority. In addition, we can conjecture that the larger volatility level on expiration Thursday than on non-expiration Thursday may be due to institutional investors and foreign investors rather than individual investors.