{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,26]],"date-time":"2026-03-26T16:28:13Z","timestamp":1774542493416,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":36,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,7,26]],"date-time":"2023-07-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1690329600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Economies"],"abstract":"<jats:p>An array of global events, including the global financial crisis, natural disasters, and the recent coronavirus pandemic, have consistently shown the vulnerability of global systems and humans to externally undesirable contagions. In order to further provide alternative approaches to information valuation, this study utilized the economic policy uncertainty (EPU) of 21 leading developed and developing economies (Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Russia, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America) over the period January 1997 to May 2021. The information theory reveals the hierarchy of degrees of randomness in the EPU indices; it shows the information flow among the EPU indices through the mutual information metric and the graphical illustration of the information flows using network theory. Importantly, the Entropy measures indicate higher predictability of the Netherlands and Ireland\u2019s EPU indices, suggesting that they have less randomness than other indices. Contrarily, Greece and the United Kingdom share the lowest predictability of the EPU indices. Moreover, the complex networks analysis shows that the EPU indices is generally shaped by geographic location. In order of significance, the United States of America\u2019s EPU index exhibits the strongest correlation with other countries\u2019 EPU indices and followed by the EPU indices of France, the United Kingdom (UK), and Germany. In general, the result of the investigation communicates relevant policy measures that potentially ameliorate shocks from external contagions.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/economies11080201","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,7,27]],"date-time":"2023-07-27T01:50:37Z","timestamp":1690422637000},"page":"201","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["Evaluating the Hierarchical Contagion of Economic Policy Uncertainty among the Leading Developed and Developing Economies"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7773-7321","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Serkan","family":"Alkan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Applied Sciences, Department of Banking and Finance, Tarsus University, Mersin 33000, Turkey"}]},{"given":"Saffet","family":"Akda\u011f","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Applied Sciences, Department of Banking and Finance, Tarsus University, Mersin 33000, Turkey"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5355-3707","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Andrew Adewale","family":"Alola","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CREDS-Centre for Research on Digitalization and Sustainability, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, 2418 Elverun, Norway"},{"name":"Faculty of Economics, Administrative and Social Sciences, Nisantasi University, Istanbul 69002, Turkey"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,7,26]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"101442","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ribaf.2021.101442","article-title":"Economic policy uncertainty: Persistence and cross-country linkages","volume":"58","author":"Abakah","year":"2021","journal-title":"Research in International Business and Finance"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2507","DOI":"10.1080\/13683500.2019.1687662","article-title":"Economic policy uncertainty and tourism: Evidence from the heterogeneous panel","volume":"23","author":"Akadiri","year":"2020","journal-title":"Current Issues in Tourism"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"63","DOI":"10.1016\/j.econlet.2018.02.011","article-title":"Dynamic connectedness of uncertainty across developed economies: A time-varying approach","volume":"166","author":"Antonakakis","year":"2018","journal-title":"Economics Letters"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"122431","DOI":"10.1016\/j.physa.2019.122431","article-title":"Economic risk contagion among major economies: New evidence from EPU spillover analysis in time and frequency domains","volume":"535","author":"Bai","year":"2019","journal-title":"Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and Its Applications"},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1593","DOI":"10.1093\/qje\/qjw024","article-title":"Measuring economic policy uncertainty","volume":"131","author":"Baker","year":"2016","journal-title":"The Quarterly Journal of Economics"},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"271","DOI":"10.1093\/jjfinec\/nby001","article-title":"Measuring the frequency dynamics of financial connectedness and systemic risk","volume":"16","year":"2018","journal-title":"Journal of Financial Econometrics"},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1170","DOI":"10.1086\/228631","article-title":"Power and centrality: A family of measures","volume":"92","author":"Bonacich","year":"1987","journal-title":"American Journal of Sociology"},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"401","DOI":"10.21078\/JSSI-2020-401-33","article-title":"Connectedness among economic policy uncertainties: Evidence from the time and frequency domain perspectives","volume":"8","author":"Cui","year":"2020","journal-title":"Journal of Systems Science and Information"},{"key":"ref_9","first-page":"205","article-title":"Influence maximization in online social network using different centrality measures as seed node of information propagation","volume":"44","author":"Dey","year":"2019","journal-title":"Sadhana\u2013Academy Proceedings in Engineering Sciences"},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"57","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ijforecast.2011.02.006","article-title":"Better to give than to receive: Predictive directional measurement of volatility spillovers","volume":"28","author":"Diebold","year":"2012","journal-title":"International Journal of Forecasting"},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"119","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jeconom.2014.04.012","article-title":"On the network topology of variance decompositions: Measuring the connectedness of financial firms","volume":"182","author":"Diebold","year":"2014","journal-title":"Journal of Econometrics"},{"key":"ref_12","first-page":"81","article-title":"Trans-Atlantic equity volatility connectedness: US and European financial institutions, 2004-\u20132014","volume":"14","author":"Diebold","year":"2015","journal-title":"Journal of Financial Econometrics"},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"317","DOI":"10.1016\/S0304-4076(98)00046-3","article-title":"Ordering univariate distributions by entropy and variance","volume":"90","author":"Ebrahimi","year":"1999","journal-title":"Journal of Econometrics"},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"052801","DOI":"10.1103\/PhysRevE.89.052801","article-title":"Networks in financial markets based on the mutual information rate","volume":"89","author":"Fiedor","year":"2014","journal-title":"Physical Review E-Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics"},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"75","DOI":"10.1016\/j.physrep.2009.11.002","article-title":"Community detection in graphs","volume":"486","author":"Fortunato","year":"2010","journal-title":"Physics Reports"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"35","DOI":"10.2307\/3033543","article-title":"A set of measures of centrality based on betweenness","volume":"40","author":"Freeman","year":"1977","journal-title":"Sociometry"},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"74","DOI":"10.1080\/13504851.2018.1438580","article-title":"Dynamic connectedness network in economic policy uncertainties","volume":"26","author":"Kang","year":"2019","journal-title":"Applied Economics Letters"},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"15032","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0015032","article-title":"Dominating clasp of the financial sector revealed by partial correlation analysis of the stock market","volume":"5","author":"Kenett","year":"2010","journal-title":"PLoS ONE"},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"321","DOI":"10.1108\/10867371111171564","article-title":"Dynamic structure of the US financial systems","volume":"28","author":"Khashanah","year":"2011","journal-title":"Studies in Economics and Finance"},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"508","DOI":"10.1016\/j.econlet.2014.07.015","article-title":"International spillovers of policy uncertainty","volume":"124","author":"Sekkel","year":"2014","journal-title":"Economics Letters"},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"278","DOI":"10.1209\/epl\/i2004-10483-y","article-title":"Hierarchical clustering using mutual information","volume":"70","author":"Kraskov","year":"2005","journal-title":"EPL (Europhysics Letters)"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"96","DOI":"10.1016\/j.econmod.2017.06.012","article-title":"Dynamics of international spillovers and interaction: Evidence from financial market stress and economic policy uncertainty","volume":"68","author":"Liow","year":"2018","journal-title":"Economic Modelling"},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"193","DOI":"10.1007\/s100510050929","article-title":"Hierarchical structure in financial markets","volume":"11","author":"Mantegna","year":"1999","journal-title":"The European Physical Journal B"},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"101223","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ribaf.2020.101223","article-title":"Uncovering the global network of economic policy uncertainty","volume":"53","author":"Marfatia","year":"2020","journal-title":"Research in International Business and Finance"},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"40","DOI":"10.1016\/S0010-4655(02)00201-1","article-title":"The structure and function of networks","volume":"147","author":"Newman","year":"2002","journal-title":"Computer Physics Communications"},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"26126","DOI":"10.1103\/PhysRevE.67.026126","article-title":"Mixing patterns in networks","volume":"67","author":"Newman","year":"2003","journal-title":"Physical Review E"},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"321","DOI":"10.1140\/epjb\/e2004-00124-y","article-title":"Detecting community structure in networks","volume":"38","author":"Newman","year":"2004","journal-title":"European Physical Journal B"},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"6656176","DOI":"10.1155\/2021\/6656176","article-title":"Economic policy uncertainty linkages among asian countries: Evidence from threshold cointegration approach","volume":"2021","author":"Osei","year":"2021","journal-title":"Discrete Dynamics in Nature and Society"},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"27","DOI":"10.22440\/wjae.7.2.2","article-title":"Time-Varying Network Connectedness of G-7 Economic Policy Uncertainties: A Locally Stationary TVP-VAR Approach","volume":"7","author":"Polat","year":"2021","journal-title":"World Journal of Applied Economics"},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"379","DOI":"10.1002\/j.1538-7305.1948.tb01338.x","article-title":"A Mathematical Theory of Communication","volume":"27","author":"Shannon","year":"1948","journal-title":"Bell System Technical Journal"},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1186\/1471-2105-13-328","article-title":"Comparison of co-expression measures: Mutual information, correlation, and model based indices","volume":"13","author":"Song","year":"2012","journal-title":"BMC Bioinformatics"},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"188","DOI":"10.47654\/v25y2021i1p188-215","article-title":"Network analysis of economic and financial uncertainties in advanced economies: Evidence from graph-theory","volume":"25","author":"Tiwari","year":"2021","journal-title":"Advances in Decision Sciences"},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"10421","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.0500298102","article-title":"A tool for filtering information in complex systems","volume":"102","author":"Tumminello","year":"2005","journal-title":"Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences"},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"101981","DOI":"10.1016\/j.frl.2021.101981","article-title":"Transitions in the cryptocurrency market during the COVID-19 pandemic: A network analysis","volume":"43","year":"2021","journal-title":"Finance Research Letters"},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"101554","DOI":"10.1016\/j.pacfin.2021.101554","article-title":"Policy uncertainty spillovers and financial risk contagion in the Asia-Pacific network","volume":"67","author":"Yang","year":"2021","journal-title":"Pacific-Basin Finance Journal"},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"101666","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ribaf.2022.101666","article-title":"The global economic policy uncertainty spillover analysis: In the background of COVID-19 pandemic","volume":"61","author":"Zhou","year":"2022","journal-title":"Research in International Business and Finance"}],"container-title":["Economies"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2227-7099\/11\/8\/201\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T20:19:31Z","timestamp":1760127571000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2227-7099\/11\/8\/201"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2023,7,26]]},"references-count":36,"journal-issue":{"issue":"8","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,8]]}},"alternative-id":["economies11080201"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/economies11080201","relation":{},"ISSN":["2227-7099"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2227-7099","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2023,7,26]]}}}