Predicting volatility is a must in the finance domain. Estimations of volatility, along with the central tendency, permit us to evaluate the chances of getting a particular result. Financial analysts are frequently challenged with the assignment of diversifying assets in order to form efficient portfolios with a higher risk to reward ratio. The objective of this research is to analyze the influence of COVID-19 on the return and volatility of the stock market indices of the top 10 countries based on GDP using a widely applied econometric model—generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (GARCH). For this purpose, the daily returns of market indices from January 2019 to June 2020 were taken into consideration. The results reveal daily negative mean returns for all market indices during the COVID period (January 2020 to June 2020). Though the second quarter of the COVID period reflects a bounce back for all market indices with altered strengths, the volatility remains higher than in normal periods, signaling a bearish tendency in the market. The COVID variable, as an exogenous variance regressor in GARCH modeling, is found to be positive and significant for all market indices. Furthermore, the results confirmed the mean-reverting process for all market indices.

Organic farming is gaining acceptance all over the world due to associated benefits of quality food, enhanced soil health, environment protection, conservation of natural resources and taking care of human health. However, concern is whether farmers will change their farming systems which they have been practicing from long and shift to organic farming. The attitude and perceptions of farmers on organic farming systems have an impact on their behavioral tendencies. Consequently, the attitude is being shaped by various factors which stand as driving and restraining forces for the desired change. In the present paper, the review of various research studies provide insight into the factors that are considered important by the farmers for adoption of organic farming, the willingness and ability of farmers to change their current farming system and the problems that are perceived by the farmers in converting to organic farming system.

The current empirical study attempts to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on the performance of the Indian stock market concerning two composite indices (BSE 500 and BSE Sensex) and eight sectoral indices of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) (Auto, Bankex, Consumer Durables, Capital Goods, Fast Moving Consumer Goods, Health Care, Information Technology, and Realty) of India, and compare the composite indices of India with three global indexes S&P 500, Nikkei 225, and FTSE 100. The daily data from January 2019 to May 2020 have been considered in this study. GLS regression has been applied to assess the impact of COVID-19 on the multiple measures of volatility, namely standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis of all indices. All indices’ key findings show lower mean daily return than specific, negative returns in the crisis period compared to the pre-crisis period. The standard deviation of all the indices has gone up, the skewness has become negative, and the kurtosis values are exceptionally large. The relation between indices has increased during the crisis period. The Indian stock market depicts roughly the same standard deviation as the global markets but has higher negative skewness and higher positive kurtosis of returns, making the market seem more volatile.

Cryptocurrencies have gained a lot of attraction across the globe. Most observers of the cryptocurrency market will agree that crypto volatility is in a different league altogether. There has been a growing need to understand the nature of volatility in cryptocurrency. This paper analyzes the performance of four mostly traded, different cryptocurrencies in terms of their risk and return. The relationship between the return and returns volatility among different currencies has been examined considering the daily closing prices from 1 January 2017 to 30 June 2022, using the family of the GARCH model. The study has explored the spillover and asymmetric effect of volatility by using the DCC GARCH model and EGARCH model, respectively. The causal behavior among different cryptocurrencies has also been examined using Granger causality. There has been a strong spillover effect among different cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ether, which are the top two cryptocurrencies with the highest market capitalization which have exhibited an asymmetric impact in their volatility as compared to the other two currencies, which are Litecoin and XRP.

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