Political and Institutional Factors in the Convergence of International Equity Markets: Evidence from the Club Convergence and Clustering Procedure

In this study the new panel convergence methodology developed by Phillips and Sul (2007) is employed to explore the convergence dynamics of international equity markets and determine whether political and institutional factors can explain convergence or divergence patterns across international equity markets. The empirical findings suggest that international equity markets do not form a homogeneous convergence club. Seven specific political and institutional factors are used to explain such divergent behavior. The empirical analysis documented specific factors, i.e. democratization, unemployment benefits, and public expenditure on pensions, which seem capable of explaining such a heterogeneous divergent pattern among the equity markets under study.