Political Uncertainty and Financial Market Uncertainty in an Australian context

This paper seeks to investigate the influence of political uncertainty, surrounding the Australian federal election cycle, on financial market uncertainty. Measures of political uncertainty are constructed and their relationship with market uncertainty, as measured by implied volatility, explored. E...

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Main Author: Smales, Lee
Format: Journal Article
Published: Elsevier BV * North-Holland 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/39867
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author Smales, Lee
author_facet Smales, Lee
author_sort Smales, Lee
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description This paper seeks to investigate the influence of political uncertainty, surrounding the Australian federal election cycle, on financial market uncertainty. Measures of political uncertainty are constructed and their relationship with market uncertainty, as measured by implied volatility, explored. Empirical evidence suggests that increasing (decreasing) levels of uncertainty around the election induce higher (lower) levels of market uncertainty. An increasing likelihood of the incumbent party, whose economic policies are presumably well-known, winning the election, reduces market uncertainty. This relationship is stronger when political uncertainty is highest, when the business cycle contracting, and when the level of economic risk is high. Higher levels of political uncertainty tend to be associated with declining levels of outstanding debt, and lower issuance of long-term Government debt, driven by falling demand and higher yields.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-398672019-02-19T05:35:18Z Political Uncertainty and Financial Market Uncertainty in an Australian context Smales, Lee Debt issuance Financial market uncertainty Political uncertainty Implied volatility Stock markets This paper seeks to investigate the influence of political uncertainty, surrounding the Australian federal election cycle, on financial market uncertainty. Measures of political uncertainty are constructed and their relationship with market uncertainty, as measured by implied volatility, explored. Empirical evidence suggests that increasing (decreasing) levels of uncertainty around the election induce higher (lower) levels of market uncertainty. An increasing likelihood of the incumbent party, whose economic policies are presumably well-known, winning the election, reduces market uncertainty. This relationship is stronger when political uncertainty is highest, when the business cycle contracting, and when the level of economic risk is high. Higher levels of political uncertainty tend to be associated with declining levels of outstanding debt, and lower issuance of long-term Government debt, driven by falling demand and higher yields. 2014 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/39867 10.1016/j.intfin.2014.07.002 Elsevier BV * North-Holland fulltext
spellingShingle Debt issuance
Financial market uncertainty
Political uncertainty
Implied volatility
Stock markets
Smales, Lee
Political Uncertainty and Financial Market Uncertainty in an Australian context
title Political Uncertainty and Financial Market Uncertainty in an Australian context
title_full Political Uncertainty and Financial Market Uncertainty in an Australian context
title_fullStr Political Uncertainty and Financial Market Uncertainty in an Australian context
title_full_unstemmed Political Uncertainty and Financial Market Uncertainty in an Australian context
title_short Political Uncertainty and Financial Market Uncertainty in an Australian context
title_sort political uncertainty and financial market uncertainty in an australian context
topic Debt issuance
Financial market uncertainty
Political uncertainty
Implied volatility
Stock markets
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/39867