Liberalisation and stock market co-movement between emerging economies

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of trade and financial liberalisation on the degree of stock market co-movement among emerging economies. Using a sample of 25 developing countries observed over 15 years, we estimate the impact of reforms aimed at opening these countries through trade and financial channels to the rest of the world. The estimation of time-varying cross-country correlations allows the econometric investigation to be performed using a panel data framework, thus raising the quality of the statistical inference. Our results offer strong support in favour of a positive impact of trade and financial liberalisation reforms on the degree of cross-country stock market linkages.