We revisit the oil price and stock market nexus by considering the impact of major economic shocks in the post-global financial crisis (GFC) scenario. Our breakpoint unit root test and Markov switching regression (MRS) analyses using West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil price and Standard & Poor's 500 (S&P 500) market index show that among the major economic events, the recent coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is the most significant contributor to market volatilities. Furthermore, our MRS results show that the relationship between oil price and the stock market is regime-dependent; the stock market experiences substantial and positive shocks in a volatile oil price regime. Our results provide valuable insights to investors and policymakers regarding risk management and financial market stability during economic crisis periods, specifically during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kratom has caught the attention of governments, policymakers, and academicians due to its unique characteristics. This paper explores the scholarly works related to the different aspects of Kratom to elucidate its research progress and identify future research agendas. We reviewed existing publications on Kratom using a bibliometric methodology. By analyzing 431 scientific publications, we identified publication sources, document analysis, countries analysis, and research keywords, which helped us understand the research locus on Kratom. After reviewing the publications, we discovered significant disagreements in categorizing and defining Kratom amongst authors based on their nationalities. We also showed the knowledge structure of existing publications via thematic analysis, illustrating that the studies focused on the opioid nature of Kratom. Also, drug abuse-related issues evolved as the motor theme of research, while other aspects are prevalent as niche or emerging research themes. This paper contributes to the literature by providing a broad idea of existing literature and offering a comprehensive outlook on Kratom, which could be helpful for policy formulation in the future.