Asymmetric dependency among US national financial conditions and clean energy markets

This paper examines the relationship between the US National Financial Conditions Index (NFCI) and the clean energy industry using quantile and frequency connectedness, cross-quantile, and wavelet quantile correlation (WQC) techniques. Results reveal (a) a stronger dependence between the NFCI and clean energy under bullish market states. Moreover, the total connectedness between the NFCI and clean energy mostly exhibits time-varying characteristics. In particular, clean energy has a greater spillover effect than the NFCI. (b) Dynamic frequency total connectedness at extreme quantiles provided a more comprehensive view of structural shocks in financial markets, and major crises, such as COVID-19, significantly amplified this connectedness. Overall, the WilderHill Clean Energy Index and the NASDAQ OMX Renewable Energy Index demonstrate substantial potential for hedging financial conditions. (c) The cross-quantile correlation results revealed an asymmetric dependency, demonstrating a sustained significant positive relationship between the NFCI and clean energy index (CEI) across the relative higher quantiles and middle quantiles. The WQC showed that the NFCI and specific CEIs tended to exhibit the strongest positive correlations in nonextreme quantiles and lower frequencies. These results can be of considerable interest to various financial market participants.