On the efficiency of the gold returns: An econometric exploration for India, USA and Brazil

Abstract

As a precious metal and investment commodity, gold has been signified to be important for risk management, diversification, and hedging. The gold market has undergone considerable structural changes in the facet of the pandemic and other geopolitical developments, attracting the interest of investors. Thus, it is crucial to look into how these structural changes affect the efficiency of the market. Accordingly, the study examines and compares the evolution of the gold market efficiency in three major economies from January 1, 2018, to August 31, 2022: India, USA, and Brazil. For this, we first decompose the time series using Loess Smoother's Seasonal and Trend Decomposition and then employ a multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis approach. The estimates are strengthened by the alternative approach of the rolling window method of wild bootstrap automatic variance ratio. The findings indicate a considerable decline in the efficiency of the gold returns across three economies, with the highest decline in India, followed by USA and Brazil. Notably, during covid and post covid periods, India and USA show persistence in small fluctuations, while Brazil displays persistent behavior in large fluctuations. Thereby, the market panic makes the gold market unstable, and its use as a safe haven is “erratic”.