Florent Deisting

Assessing time-varying stock market integration in Economic and Monetary Union for normal and crisis periods

In this paper, we examine the stock market integration process amongst 17 Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) countries from January 2002 to June 2013 over a normal period as well as for the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and Eurozone Debt Crisis (EDC) periods. We classify the economies in three groups (A, B and C) based on their GDP to examine whether the economic size influences financial integration. Seven indicators are used for the purpose, namely, beta convergence, sigma convergence, variance ratio, asymmetric DCC, dynamic cointegration, market synchronisation measure and common components approach. The results suggest that large-sized EMU economies (termed as Group A) exhibit strong stock market integration. Moderate integration is observed for middle-sized EMU economies with old membership (termed as Group B). Small-sized economies (termed as Group C) economies seemed to be least integrated within the EMU stock market system. The findings further suggest presence of contagion effects as one moves from normal to crisis periods, which are specifically stronger for more integrated economies of Group A. We recommend institutional, regulatory and other policy reforms for Group B and especially Group C to achieve higher level of integration.

Time Varying Integration amongst the South Asian Equity Markets: An Empirical Study

Abstract In this paper, we examine the dynamic nature of equity market integration for the South Asian countries. The daily data for local equity indices are used from 6 January 2004 to 31 March 2015. Copula GARCH models and Diebold and Yilmaz methodology have been employed to study the inter-temporal process of equity market integration. Empirical results show that the sample countries of the region exhibit very little or no levels of integration between them. Equity portfolio flows within the South Asian region reconfirms this trend for low integration in the region. Further, trend analysis of the fundamental determinants of financial integration for the SAARC countries was performed and the same was compared with its neighbouring regional economic bloc in Asia i.e. ASEAN + 6. It indicated that SAARC countries have to show sincere political commitment and require collaboration in efforts of policy realignment to work on their governance parameters, improve on their trade linkages and trade tariffs and develop their equity market infrastructure to achieve higher levels of financial integration. The paper contributes to the International Finance literature, especially dealing with regional economic blocs and has important implications for policy-makers, portfolio managers and academia.