Assoc. Prof. Gülin Vardar and Assoc. Prof. Berna Aydoğan, lecturers from Faculty of Business, Izmir University of Economics (IUE), received international award for their  article where they researched the differences in returns between the stocks, bonds, dollar and euro with 'Bitcoin' in Turkey. The "Emerald Publishing", which has been the scientific publisher of academic journals and books in England since 1967, deemed the work of IUE academics the "Most Outstanding Article" award of 2019 in the evaluation they made among thousands of articles around the world.

Assoc. Prof. Gülin Vardar, Head of IUE Department of International Trade and Finance, and Assoc. Prof. Berna Aydoğan, Vice Dean of Faculty of Business, presented the interest to Bitcoin in Turkey recently, and its status compared to other kinds of financial assets. Conducting a thorough research on currency markets in Turkey, the duo sent the article to England in order to announce this work worldwide.

EXPERT TEAM EVALUATED

Emerald Publishing, which evaluates the articles sent to them from different countries of the world by forming an expert jury each year, announced the award-winning works that are deemed worthy of international exhibition. IUE Faculty Members Aydoğan and Vardar were selected among thousands of academics abroad and received the "Distinguished Article" award.

INVESTING IN ‘BITCOIN’

Vardar and Aydoğan, who stated that they are happy that the scientific work they have prepared with great effort is deemed worthy of an award, said, “Bitcoin is the highest volume unit of the cryptocurrency markets. In this article, we researched the return and volatility transmission between bitcoin and stock, bonds, dollar and euro for Turkey. In addition to macroeconomic factors, Bitcoin has grown rapidly with the effect of large institutions shifting some of their investments to this area. It has become an important financial asset in terms of investors' portfolio diversification. There is a significant level of investment being made to Bitcoin in Turkey. We touched upon these points in the article.”

IT BECAME NECESSARY TO ANALYZE

Aydoğan and Vardar continued as follows: “The Article is of great importance in terms of discovering the potential of Bitcoin to provide diversification opportunities in the context of Turkey. In addition it indicates that since its launch in 2009, Bitcoin has been one of the most preferred cryptocurrencies in the world, and that it has become increasingly necessary to analyze its current behavior on other assets in Turkey in terms of policy-makers and regulatory agencies. We launched this study by examining recent developments in the Turkish market. It made us very proud that our scientific work is internationally recognized and attracted attention. We will implement new studies in the upcoming period.”