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This paper examines equilibrium relationships and dynamic causality between economic growth, exports, and imports in Nepal using time-series data between 1965 and 2020. This research examines the impact of exports and imports on the economic growth of Nepal and documents empirical evidence in exports-led growth, imports-led growth, growth-led exports, and growth-led imports hypotheses in both the short and long run. The test results show no evidence favoring the exports-led growth and growth-led exports hypotheses in both the short and long run. However, the study finds evidence supporting the imports-led growth hypothesis in the short term and the growth-led imports hypothesis in the long term. Overall, this paper finds no evidence in favor of the notion that foreign trade supports the economic growth of Nepal in the long run. The research findings may have important implications for policymakers in Nepal. The paper contributes to trade and economic growth literature by investigating the relationship between exports, imports, capital, and gross domestic products in a small economy such as Nepal, where exports make a minimal and imports make an extensive contribution to gross domestic products by using cointegration and the vector error correction model.

This paper examines the performance of a naïve equally weighted buy-and-hold portfolio and optimization-based commodity futures portfolios for various lookback and holding periods using data from January 1986 to December 2018. The application of Monte Carlo simulation-based mean-variance and conditional value-at-risk optimization techniques are used to construct the robust commodity futures portfolios. This paper documents the benefits of applying a sophisticated, robust optimization technique to construct commodity futures portfolios. We find that a 12-month lookback period contains the most useful information in constructing optimization-based portfolios, and a 1-month holding period yields the highest returns among all the holding periods examined in the paper. We also find that an optimized conditional value-at-risk portfolio using a 12-month lookback period outperforms an optimized mean-variance portfolio using the same lookback period. Our findings highlight the advantages of using robust optimization for portfolio formation in the presence of return uncertainty in the commodity futures markets. The results also highlight the practical importance of choosing the appropriate lookback and holding period when using robust optimization in the commodity portfolio formation process.

This paper attempts to empirically investigate the presence of a cointegrating relationship between the exports, imports, and the USD exchange rate in Nepal using the yearly time series data from 1965 to 2017. Time series properties of the data are diagnosed using the Augmented Dickey-Fuller unit root test and Johansen's multivariate cointegration test. The findings indicate that there exists no cointegrating relationship between exports, imports, and the USD exchange rate in Nepal, and hence, no causal relationships within vector error correction model (VECM) can be estimated for Nepal. The lack of cointegration implies that macroeconomic policies of Nepal have been ineffective in bringing exports and imports in long-run equilibrium, and thus, Nepal is in violation of her international budget constraint. These findings may have important implications for decision-making by national policymakers.

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