A Measure Of Stock Market Integration For Developed And Emerging Markets

June 1995 Along several dimensions, a measure of the financial integration of equity markets yields results consistent with prior assumptions about the relationship between effective integration, explicit capital controls, capital market development, and economic growth. If equity markets are financially integrated, the price of risk should be the same across markets. If the markets are not financially integrated--possibly because of barriers to capital flows across markets--the price of risk may differ across markets. Korajczyk investigates one measure of financial integration between equity markets. He uses a multifactor equilibrium Arbitrage Pricing Theory to define risk and to measure deviations from the law of one price. He applies the integration measure to equities traded in 24 countries (four developed, and 20 emerging). The measure of market segmentation tends to be much larger for emerging markets than for developed markets, which is consistent with larger barriers to capital flows into or out of the emerging markets. The measure tends to decrease over time, which is consistent with growing levels of integration. Large values of adjusted mispricing occur around periods of economic turbulence and periods in which capital controls change significantly. So, the adjusted mispricing estimates measure not only the level of deviation from the law of one price, but also the revaluations inherent in moving from one regime to another. This paper--a product of the Finance and Private Sector Development Division, Policy Research Department--is part of a larger effort in the department to study stock market development. The study was funded by the Bank's Research Support Budget under the research project Stock Market Development and Financial Intermediary Growth (RPO 678-37).

Along several dimensions, a measure of the financial integration of equity markets yields results consistent with prior assumptions about the relationship between effective integration, explicit capital controls, capital market development, and economic growth.If equity markets are financially integrated, the price of risk should be the same across markets. If the markets are not financially integrated - possibly because of barriers to capital flows across markets - the price of risk may differ across markets.Korajczyk investigates one measure of financial integration between equity markets. He uses a multifactor equilibrium Arbitrage Pricing Theory to define risk and to measure deviations from the law of one price. He applies the integration measure to equities traded in 24 countries (four developed, and 20 emerging).The measure of market segmentation tends to be much larger for emerging markets than for developed markets, which is consistent with larger barriers to capital flows into or out of the emerging markets. The measure tends to decrease over time, which is consistent with growing levels of integration.Large values of adjusted mispricing occur around periods of economic turbulence and periods in which capital controls change significantly. So, the adjusted mispricing estimates measure not only the level of deviation from the law of one price, but also the revaluations inherent in moving from one regime to another.This paper - a product of the Finance and Private Sector Development Division, Policy Research Department - is part of a larger effort in the department to study stock market development. The study was funded by the Bank's Research Support Budget under the research project Stock Market Development and Financial Intermediary Growth (RPO 678-37).

Stock market integration between developing and emerging markets has numerous benefits for creating a global - yet stable - world economy. It increases competition and the efficiency of local markets, in turn reducing price volatility and the cost of capital among integrated markets. It also generates capital flows, which enhance financial stability and spur economic growth. At its core, stock market integration has an important role to play in both developing and emerging markets still reeling from the global financial crisis. Global Stock Market Integration analyzes the financial makeup of developing and emerging markets around the world, providing empirical insights into market integration, co-movements in price, crises, and efficiency linkages. Mobarek and Mollah argue that the relationship between market integration and market efficiency within developing and emerging countries is not the only measure necessary for effecting real financial growth. This work brings the review of theories and empirical research on the topic up-to-date and expands the existing literature with new perspectives on developed and emerging markets.

Emerging markets have received a particular attention of academic researchers and practitioners since they decided to open their domestic capital markets to foreign participants about three decades ago. At the same time, we remark that theoretical and empirical research in emerging stock markets has been particularly challenged by their fast changes in nature and size under the effects of financial liberalization and reforms. This evolving feature has particularly led to a commensurate increase in sophistication of modeling techniques used for understanding financial markets. In this spirit, the book aims at providing the audience a comprehensive understanding of emerging stock markets in various aspects using modern financial econometric methods. It addresses the empirical techniques needed by economic agents to analyze the dynamics of these markets and illustrates how they can be applied to the actual data. On the other hand, it presents and discusses new research findings and their implications.

With foreign capital funds dwindling, governments in many developing countries-- with increased Bank support-- are looking to develop capital markets to provide risk capital for the corporate sector. But first, some basic issues must be empirically explored.

The relationship between the development of stock markets and the functioning of financial intermediaries may be complementary.

The degree of comovement across national stock markets has increased dramatically since the mid-1990s. This has overturned a stylized fact in the international portfolio diversification literature that diversifying across countries is more effective for risk reduction than diversifying across industries. We investigate if this rise in comovement is a permanent phenomenon driven by greater economic and financial integration, or a temporary effect associated with the recent stock market bubble. At the global level, our results point to the bubble. At a regional level, we find evidence of a significant rise in market integration within Europe, possibly a reflection of institutional changes such as the EMU.