Research at Webster Vienna

Dr. Nikolaos Antonakakis, Associate Professor and Area Coordinator for Economics and Finance of Webster Vienna’s Business and Management Department, received a letter of acceptance from the International Review of Economics and Finance (IF 2.522) for a paper he co-authored, entitled “Dynamic connectedness among the implied volatilities of oil prices and financial assets: New evidence of the COVID-19 pandemic”

Abstract

This paper examines the dynamic connectedness among the implied volatilities of oil prices (OVX) and fourteen other assets, which can be grouped into five different assets classes (i.e., energy commodities, stock markets, precious metals, exchange rates and bond markets). To do so we employ a recently developed time-varying parameter vector autoregression (TVP-VAR), using daily data for the period 16th March 2011 to 3th March 2021 that covers the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The empirical results suggest that connectedness across the different asset classes and oil price implied volatilities are varying over time and fluctuate at very high levels. The dynamic total connectedness fluctuates between 65% and 85% indicating a high degree of cross-market risk linkages.

Furthermore, we find that the oil market is becoming more integrated with the financial markets, since it tends to be materially impacted by abrupt fluctuations of the global financial markets’ volatilities. More specifically, the analysis shows that, throughout the period, OVX is a net receiver of shocks to the remaining implied volatilities. Finally, the pairwise net spillovers suggests that OVX is constantly at the net receiving end vis-a-vis the majority of the asset classes’ implied volatilities. Those findings are of major importance for portfolio and risk management in terms of asset allocation and diversification.

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Faculty — Business and Management

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"Gruppenbildung in der Chinapolitik der EU: Implikationen für die Kohärenz europäischer Außenpolitik"

(Group formation in the EU’s China policy: Implications for the coherence of European foreign policy) by Franco Algieri and  Joachim Honeck

Relations with China are of high priority in the context of the European Union’s (EU) foreign policy. They reflect strengths and weaknesses of the EU as an actor in international relations. Regarding the issue of coherence in European foreign policy in particular, it can be useful to analyse the Union’s China policy.

In light of a changing European China policy, this article identifies three groups that are of interest for the closer definition of this policy. Based hereupon, possible implications of this group formation for the further development of the European foreign policy and the European China policy are highlighted.

 

 

Assistant Professor Anatoly Reshetnikov has visited the University of Tartu (Estonia) as part of the Erasmus+ Faculty Mobility program. In Tartu, Reshetnikov delivered a public talk at the Center for Eurasian and Russian Studies (CEURUS) on Russia’s nebulous challenges to the liberal world order in the context of the ongoing war in Ukraine. He also participated as a guest lecturer in the graduate course on Constructivism curated by Professor Viacheslav Morozov.

As part of his professional training activities, Reshetnikov joined the colloquium organized by the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies and met with the Institute’s faculty members.

The University of Tartu is recognized as one of the leading institutions in the “Emerging Europe and Central Asia” region (#2 in 2021, according to the QS rankings).

 

Professor Bátora conceptualizes differentiation and segmentation in the EU

In a chapter for The Routledge Handbook of Differentiation in the European Union (edited by Benjamin Leruth et al., Routledge 2022),  professor Jozef Bátora and his co-author professor John E. Fossum (ARENA - University of Oslo) elaborate on the concepts of differentiation and segmentation in the EU. It is widely recognized that the EU that emerged from the financial and refugee crises of the last decade has become more differentiated. Such a development brings forth questions about the nature and character of the EU as a political system, and the kinds of processes and mechanisms that drive its development.

An important problem is that neither differentiated integration nor differentiation say much about the positive character or the distinguishing features of the EU as a political system. The claim that Bátora and Fossum set forth in the chapter is that the notion of the EU as a segmented political system provides a more apt and precise characterization of the EU as a political system. In addition, the notion of segmentation helps to capture some of the distinct dynamics that propel the EU’s development.

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Faculty — International Relations

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Research by associate professor and Media Communication department head Dr. Bradley Wiggins was published as a chapter of an edited book called "The Pragmatics of Internet Memes". His contribution (pp. 64-84) examines the role of the "media narrative" that is often incorporated into memes, sometimes meaning that people might become aware of issues and current events first through memes, rather than traditional forms of news media. 

Book abstract:

What is a meme? What is in a meme? What does "living in/with memes" actually mean? What do memes mean to human beings dwelling in a life-world at once connected and fragmented by the internet and social media? Answers to and ways of answering these and other meme questions that arise in social events represent human assistance in - or resistance to - meaning making. A pragmatic perspective on internet memes as a way of seeing social life experience offers a unique window on how meme matters in mediated (inter)actions turn out to be inextricably intertwined with human beings’ presencing and essencing in the life-world. Ultimately, this volume seeks to reveal what and how serious if not unsayable concerns can be concealed behind the seemingly humorous, carefree and colorful carnival of internet memes across cultures, contexts, genres and modalities. This book will be of some value to anyone keen on the dynamics of memes and internet pragmatics and on critical insights that can be garnered in kaleidoscopic multimodal communication. Originally published as special issue of Internet Pragmatics 3:2 (2020). 

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Faculty — Strategic Communication

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Trust decisions are some of the most important social choices we make in life

These decisions occur in various relationships, at work, in friendship, as well as in romance. Investigating the ingredients involved in trust decision making is therefore crucial to understanding cooperative social relationships. 
 
The psychology department at WVPU researches the different social signals involved in trust decision making and how these signals interact to influence our decisions. The experimental paradigm uses a trust game, in which a person A has the possibility to invest some money in a transaction with a person B. The invested money is doubled by the experimenter before reaching person B, and the latter has the opportunity to return any amount to person A. What is not transferred to A remains in B's possession. For person A, investing a large amount initially augments the amount received by B and, indirectly, increase the money sent back by B. However, there is a risk that person B will not return anything, in which case A loses their initial investment. The initial investment decision is therefore based on a trust decision by A that person B will return at least something. In this experimental set up, we manipulate the message sent by B to A regarding their intention to return the investment and we measure A's response as a result. 
 
Dr. Marc Méhu, Webste Vienna's Associate Professor, Psychology will present preliminary findings of this experiment on trust at the biennial Congress of the International Society for Human Ethology, held at the University of Würzburg, Germany (25-29th July 2022).

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Faculty — Psychology

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