Economic development, which is sought all over, is a long-term increase in national and per capita income for higher consumption and happiness. It may seem lacking in finer things that go under the name of culture. As such, this study sets to examine the cultural dimensions of economic development, with the case study of the fast-developed small nation of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The giant developing India is also drawn upon. The objectives of the exercise are to find out the nature and dynamics of economic development and its cultural dimensions or content and thereupon draw policy implications regarding economic and cultural development. The interesting conclusions that follow from the exercise are that, there are invariable cultural dimensions to economic development and that a cultural sector emerges in the course of economic development. More emphasis needs to be given to culture in development policy and planning, without culture, economic development is not wholesome, as the UAE is amicable of wholesome holistic development.

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Vector Auto regression model (VAR) a time -varying parameter is applied to study the effect of oil price shocks on the returns of stocks in the LATAM (Latin American) markets. Coherent Wavelet analysis highlights possibilities of connectedness of the oil price and LATAM stock markets through the presence of different patterns in a time series. The structural demand shocks standard deviations during the COVID-19 era remain high and the pass-through effects on stock returns due to oil prices differ for different time frames. The fundamental linkages are demonstrated due to oil market specific demand. The main motive of the research work is to identify the influence of oil price on stocks and identify the fundamental source of contagion. A random effects model is applied to the panel data of LATAM markets with the Global stock market index, MSCI (Morgan Stanley Capital International World Index), domestic money market rates and currency exchange rates during the period of study, 15 March 2019 to 31 July 2021 with 684 observations of controlled non-observed characteristics from individual country. The findings of this research recommend the pass-through effect of the oil prices on the stock market returns are based on time frequency. The contribution of this paper helps the policy makers to restore the confidence amongst the investors in the stock markets and strategies to be adopted by the investors to mitigate the risk by ideal portfolio management.

PurposeThe aim of this research is to explore multiscale hedging strategies among cryptocurrencies, commodities, and GCC stocks. Particularly, this is done by evaluating the connectedness among these asset classes covering a period with COVID-19 implications. Using the wavelet approach, the present study aims to recommend whether there exist different time horizon-based hedging abilities across the asset classes.Design/methodology/approachThe approach used in this study is a multiscale decomposition of time series based on wavelets of daily prices of 13 asset classes. Since the wavelet analysis allows to decompose the time series into its frequency components at different time scales by a filtering process the study covered 1-day, 8-day, and 64-day time horizons to examine the hedging properties across those asset classes.FindingsThe results of this study show that hedging effectiveness differs among stock markets over time. In some cases, cryptocurrencies may keep their hedging properties across time while in others they switch from safe haven to hedge devices. In almost all cases, the three main cryptocurrencies showed diversifying properties as was observed by the multiscale correlation and hedge ratio estimations. In a competing sense, gold showed safe haven properties across time than cryptocurrencies except at an 8-day time scale where hedge ratios were low, positive and statistically different from zero that could be interpreted as a good hedge device in the medium term.Research limitations/implicationsThough this research has considered a set of thirteen asset classes, it was limited to a period in which most cryptocurrencies started trading for the first time which reduces the number of observations compared to Bitcoin prices and stable coins such as Ethereum, Ripple, and Bitcoin Cash. Also, the research was focused on the GCC stock markets which may have different results as compared to other regional markets of Asia or Latin America. A comparative analysis in future could be another area of research in future.Practical implicationsThis study has some significant policy implications. The cryptocurrency market is severely affected by demand and risk shocks to crude oil prices during the COVID-19 period. From the investor's point of view, diversification benefits can be obtained by combining cryptocurrencies along with oil-related products during episodes of financial turmoil and COVID-19 pandemic. The GCC region is constantly endeavoring to adopt more scientific tools and mechanisms of investment, and therefore, this study's results will provide some useful directions to the government, policymakers, financial institutions, and investors.Originality/valueThe current study covers a big bunch of 13 assets spanning across financial and real assets. This is based on literature gap and hence, will be a significant addition to the existing literature. Moreover, the GCC region is emerging as a global investment hub and this study will provide investors dynamic hedging strategies across these asset classes.

Bitcoin volatility has created new dimensions for the investors Globally and attracted lot of other stakeholders to investigate various factors for its performance. This research work evaluates the role of the Bitcoin as diversifier in the portfolio and performance as a hedger, safe-haven investment against Gold and Oil. We use a wavelet approach to capture time scale behaving of MSCI LATAM equity indices against Bitcoin and commodities under different market conditions. Our findings suggest that Bitcoin act as safe-haven device while Gold is a better hedger device against Oil which shows diversifier properties.