This paper examines whether economic policy uncertainty (EPU) causes real housing returns in 8 emerging economies for which EPU data are available namely: Brazil, Chile, China, India, Ireland, Russia, South Africa and South Korea. Quarterly data were used for the analysis. The study uses cross-sample validation (CSV) Granger causality approach which obviates the need to partition the data into an in-sample and out-of-sample periods when limited data are available as in this study. Results based on the CSV full sample period indicate no evidence of economic policy uncertainty Granger causing real housing returns except for Chile and China. However, based on CSV rolling window results, there is evidence of time varying causality in all the countries except India. The implications of these findings are drawn.

This paper investigates the link between oil price uncertainty shocks and key macroeconomic indicators of a net oil importing country, South Africa. Monthly data covering the period 1990:01 to 2015:12 is used. The Structural Vector Autoregressive (SVAR) methodology is applied incorporating realized volatility as an indicator of oil price uncertainty to investigate the short run effects of oil price uncertainty. The Generalised Impulse Response Functions (GIRF) analysis reveals that for most variables, oil price uncertainty shock has an adverse and persistent effect over time. Consistent with GIRF, the Generalised Forecast Error Variance Decompositions (GFEVDs) analysis also points out that oil price uncertainty shocks contributes substantially to variations in real output, inflation and various macroeconomic variables of South Africa. Therefore, SVAR analysis reveals the significant role of exogenous oil prices on the economy of South Africa when price uncertainty shocks exist. The policy implications of these findings are drawn.