This paper aims to analyse financial integration in the markets of Brazil, China, India and Russia (BRIC’s), from July 2015 to June 2020, being the sample split in pre and during the global pandemic (Covid-19). In order to carry out this analysis, different approaches were undertaken to analyse two issues, namely, whether: (i) the global pandemic has accentuated the interdependencies in the BRIC financial markets? If so, how it has influenced the efficiency of portfolio diversification. The results suggest very significant levels of integration, in the Covid period these evidences diminish the chances of portfolio diversification in the long term. In turn, the analysis of the relationship between markets, in the short term, through the impulse response functions, in a period of global pandemic, shows positive/negative movements, with statistical significance, with persistence exceeding one week. In addition, there was no immediate adjustment in prices between markets, due to the high levels of shocks identified. Regarding the implementation of efficient portfolio diversification strategies, we consider that a good option for investors would be to avoid investments in stock markets. In this sense, one suggestion could be to invest in derivatives, gold and sovereign debt markets, with the purpose of diversifying portfolios and mitigating the risk arising from the global pandemic. The authors consider that the results achieved are of interest to investors seeking opportunities in these exchanges, as well as to policy makers to undertake institutional reforms in order to increase the efficiency of stock markets and promote the sustainable growth of financial markets.

The pandemic (Covid-19) has affected the global economy, and the impact on financial markets seems inevitable. In view of these events, this essay aims to analyse the shocks between the stock market indices of Brazil (BOVESPA), China (SSEC) India (SENSEX), Russia (IMOEX) and oil (WTC), in the period from January 2, 2019 to May 29, 2020. In order to carry out this analysis, different approaches were undertaken with a view to gauging whether (i) the global pandemic has accentuated the shocks between the BRIC financial markets and the WTC? The daily yields do not have normal distributions, show negative asymmetries, leptokurtic, and exhibit conditional heteroscedasticity. In general, we find evidence that the WTC causes the markets of Russia and India, China does not cause any market, and Brazil is not caused by any market analysed. On the other hand, short-term market shocks are relevant and create some arbitrage opportunities. However, our study did not analyse anomalous returns in these financial markets. These findings also open space for market regulators to take action to ensure better information between international financial markets.

Here we present a novel approach to conditioning the SampleRNN [1] generative model for voice conversion (VC). Conventional methods for VC modify the perceived speaker identity by converting between source and target acoustic features. Our approach focuses on preserving voice content and depends on the generative network to learn voice style. We first train a multi-speaker SampleRNN model conditioned on linguistic features, pitch contour, and speaker identity using a multi-speaker speech corpus. Voice-converted speech is generated using linguistic features and pitch contour extracted from the source speaker, and the target speaker identity. We demonstrate that our system is capable of many-to-many voice conversion without requiring parallel data, enabling broad applications. Subjective evaluation demonstrates that our approach outperforms conventional VC methods.

The main objective of this research is to estimate whether portfolio diversification is feasible in the financial markets of Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand (ASEAN-5), and the market of China, in the context of the stock market crash in China in 2015. The purpose is to answer two questions, namely whether: (i) has the stock market crash in China increased financial integration in the ASEAN-5 financial markets and China? (ii) If the presence of long memories may put in question the diversification of portfolios? The results suggest that these markets are segmented, except for Malaysia/Singapore, bi-directional, and China/Filipinas, pre-crash. However, when analysing the stock market crash period, the results indicate 16 integrated market pairs with structure breakdown (in 30 possible). When compared with the previous sub-period it was found that during the stock market crash the level of financial integration increased significantly (533%). In the post-crash period, there were right integrated market pairs with broken structure. When compared to the crash period, the level of integration decreased in 50%. In addition, we observed that during the stock market crash these Asian markets did not have long memories, except for the Malaysian market, which reveals some predictability, that is, the increase in integration does not lead to persistence in these Asian markets. In conclusion, the ASEAN-5 markets and China mostly exhibit strong signs of efficiency in their weak form. The authors consider that the implementation of portfolio diversification strategies is beneficial for investors. These conclusions also open space for market regulators to take action to ensure better information between these regional markets and international markets.

This chapter aims to analyze the impact of the global 2020 pandemic on the banking sectors of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia, and Slovakia countries in the period from January 2, 2017 to August 10, 2020. The results of the Gregory-Hansen test, in the covid subperiod, show 27 integrations (in 30 possible). When comparing the pre-covid and covid subperiods, the level of integration has increased 386% between markets, which could call into question portfolio diversification, validating the first research question. In corroboration, the authors have verified that the results of Granger's causality tests, in the COVID-19 subperiod, increased significantly. In view of these results and bearing in mind the results of integration, they can show that the crisis caused by the global pandemic of 2020 has increased the synchronization between these regional banking sectors, significantly decreasing the hypothesis of implementing efficient portfolio diversification, thus validating the second research question.