Assessing the International Comovement of Equity Returns

The international comovement of equity returns has been viewed as reflecting either pervasive common shocks or local linkages between countries. This paper brings these perspectives together by assessing the comovement of equity returns in a dynami...

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Main Authors: Abate, Girum Dagnachew, Serven, Luis
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/443411531314807821/Assessing-the-international-comovement-of-equity-returns
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29989
id okr-10986-29989
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-299892021-06-08T14:42:46Z Assessing the International Comovement of Equity Returns Abate, Girum Dagnachew Serven, Luis EQUITY RETURN SPATIAL ANALYSIS INTEREST RATE EXCHANGE RATES STOCK MARKET CAPITALIZATION FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT MOVEMENT OF CAPITAL STOCK MARKET INDEX CAPITAL MARKETS TRADE POLICY ECONOMIC SHOCKS EMPIRICAL MODEL The international comovement of equity returns has been viewed as reflecting either pervasive common shocks or local linkages between countries. This paper brings these perspectives together by assessing the comovement of equity returns in a dynamic model that allows for both common factors and spatial dependence, using quarterly data for 40 advanced and emerging countries over the past two decades, and including GDP growth, the real interest rate, and credit as fundamental variables. Estimation results employing a bias-corrected quasi-maximum likelihood approach provide strong indication that the cross-country dependence of equity returns results from both spatial effects and common shocks captured by a latent common factor -- weak and strong dependence, respectively. The factor exhibits a robust negative correlation with market measures of aggregate risk. Countries' exposure to the common factor rises with their extent of trade openness and the degree of rigidity of their exchange rate regime. Despite its simplicity, the empirical model fits the data well. All these results are robust to the use of alternative spatial weight matrices. The paper also shows that ignoring cross-country dependence leads to distorted parameter estimates and a marked deterioration of the explanatory power of the empirical model. 2018-07-16T13:37:00Z 2018-07-16T13:37:00Z 2018-07 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/443411531314807821/Assessing-the-international-comovement-of-equity-returns http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29989 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8516 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic EQUITY RETURN
SPATIAL ANALYSIS
INTEREST RATE
EXCHANGE RATES
STOCK MARKET CAPITALIZATION
FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT
MOVEMENT OF CAPITAL
STOCK MARKET INDEX
CAPITAL MARKETS
TRADE POLICY
ECONOMIC SHOCKS
EMPIRICAL MODEL
spellingShingle EQUITY RETURN
SPATIAL ANALYSIS
INTEREST RATE
EXCHANGE RATES
STOCK MARKET CAPITALIZATION
FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT
MOVEMENT OF CAPITAL
STOCK MARKET INDEX
CAPITAL MARKETS
TRADE POLICY
ECONOMIC SHOCKS
EMPIRICAL MODEL
Abate, Girum Dagnachew
Serven, Luis
Assessing the International Comovement of Equity Returns
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8516
description The international comovement of equity returns has been viewed as reflecting either pervasive common shocks or local linkages between countries. This paper brings these perspectives together by assessing the comovement of equity returns in a dynamic model that allows for both common factors and spatial dependence, using quarterly data for 40 advanced and emerging countries over the past two decades, and including GDP growth, the real interest rate, and credit as fundamental variables. Estimation results employing a bias-corrected quasi-maximum likelihood approach provide strong indication that the cross-country dependence of equity returns results from both spatial effects and common shocks captured by a latent common factor -- weak and strong dependence, respectively. The factor exhibits a robust negative correlation with market measures of aggregate risk. Countries' exposure to the common factor rises with their extent of trade openness and the degree of rigidity of their exchange rate regime. Despite its simplicity, the empirical model fits the data well. All these results are robust to the use of alternative spatial weight matrices. The paper also shows that ignoring cross-country dependence leads to distorted parameter estimates and a marked deterioration of the explanatory power of the empirical model.
format Working Paper
author Abate, Girum Dagnachew
Serven, Luis
author_facet Abate, Girum Dagnachew
Serven, Luis
author_sort Abate, Girum Dagnachew
title Assessing the International Comovement of Equity Returns
title_short Assessing the International Comovement of Equity Returns
title_full Assessing the International Comovement of Equity Returns
title_fullStr Assessing the International Comovement of Equity Returns
title_full_unstemmed Assessing the International Comovement of Equity Returns
title_sort assessing the international comovement of equity returns
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2018
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/443411531314807821/Assessing-the-international-comovement-of-equity-returns
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29989
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