Panel Data Analysis

Institutional Backing and Crypto Volatility: A Hybrid Framework for DeFi Stabilization ArXiv ID: 2512.19251 “View on arXiv” Authors: Ihlas Sovbetov Abstract Decentralized finance (DeFi) lacks centralized oversight, often resulting in heightened volatility. In contrast, centralized finance (CeFi) offers a more stable environment with institutional safeguards. Institutional backing can play a stabilizing role in a hybrid structure (HyFi), enhancing transparency, governance, and market discipline. This study investigates whether HyFi-like cryptocurrencies, those backed by institutions, exhibit lower price risk than fully decentralized counterparts. Using daily data for 18 major cryptocurrencies from January 2020 to November 2024, we estimate panel EGLS models with fixed, random, and dynamic specifications. Results show that HyFi-like assets consistently experience lower price risk, with this effect intensifying during periods of elevated market volatility. The negative interaction between HyFi status and market-wide volatility confirms their stabilizing role. Conversely, greater decentralization is strongly associated with increased volatility, particularly during periods of market stress. Robustness checks using quantile regressions and pre-/post-Terra Luna subsamples reinforce these findings, with stronger effects observed in high-volatility quantiles and post-crisis conditions. These results highlight the importance of institutional architecture in enhancing the resilience of digital asset markets. ...

What Can 240,000 New Credit Transactions Tell Us About the Impact of NGEU Funds? ArXiv ID: 2504.01964 “View on arXiv” Authors: Unknown Abstract Using a panel data local projections model and controlling for firm characteristics, procurement bid attributes, and macroeconomic conditions, the study estimates the dynamic effects of procurement awards on new lending, a more precise measure than the change in the stock of credit. The analysis further examines heterogeneity in credit responses based on firm size, industry, credit maturity, and value chain position of the firms. The empirical evidence confirms that public procurement awards significantly increase new lending, with NGEU-funded contracts generating stronger credit expansion than traditional procurement during the recent period. The results show that the impact of NGEU procurement programs aligns closely with historical procurement impacts, with differences driven mainly by lower utilization rates. Moreover, integrating high-frequency financial data with procurement records highlights the potential of Big Data in refining public policy design. ...

Joint Estimation of Conditional Mean and Covariance for Unbalanced Panels ArXiv ID: 2410.21858 “View on arXiv” Authors: Unknown Abstract We develop a nonparametric, kernel-based joint estimator for conditional mean and covariance matrices in large and unbalanced panels. The estimator is supported by rigorous consistency results and finite-sample guarantees, ensuring its reliability for empirical applications. We apply it to an extensive panel of monthly US stock excess returns from 1962 to 2021, using macroeconomic and firm-specific covariates as conditioning variables. The estimator effectively captures time-varying cross-sectional dependencies, demonstrating robust statistical and economic performance. We find that idiosyncratic risk explains, on average, more than 75% of the cross-sectional variance. ...