‘Slow-burn’ spillover and ‘fast and furious’ contagion: a study of international stock markets

‘Fast and furious’ contagion across capital markets is an important phenomenon in an increasingly integrated financial world. Different from ‘slow-burn’ spillover or interdependence among these markets, ‘fast and furious’ contagion can occur instantly. To investigate this kind of contagion from the US, Japan and Hong Kong to other Asian economies, we design a research strategy to capture fundamental interdependence, or ‘slow-burn’ spillover, among these stock markets as well as short-term departures from this interdependence. Based on these departures, we propose a new contagion measure which reveals how one market responds over time to a shock in another market. We also propose international portfolio analysis for contagion via variance decomposition from the portfolio manager’s perspective. Using this research strategy, we find that the US stock market was cointegrated with the Asian stock markets during four specific periods from 3 July 1997 to 30 April 2014. Beyond this fundamental interdependence, the shocks from both Japan and Hong Kong have significant ‘fast and furious’ contagion effects on other Asian stock markets during the US subprime crisis, but the shocks from the US have no such effects.     

Common stochastic trends among Far East stock prices: Effects of the Asian financial crisis

This paper investigates empirically the change(s) in the long-run relationship(s) between the stock prices of eight Far East countries around the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98. Further tests are conducted to check the change in the influence of the Japanese and the US stock markets in the Far East Region before, during and after the crisis. Empirical investigation is conducted by means of rolling correlation coefficients, the Johansen multivariate cointegration method, causality tests and band spectrum regression. Results show significant long-run relationship(s) and linkage between the Far East markets before, during, and after the crisis. The most significant linkage and relationship are found during the crisis period. Results mostly indicate larger US influence in all periods but some evidence of increasing Japanese influence is also shown.     

Transmission of the financial and sovereign debt crises to the EMU: Stock prices,CDS spreads and exchange rates

This paper tests for the transmission of the 2007–2010 financial and sovereign debt crises to fifteen EMU countries. We use daily data from 2003 to 2010 on country financial and non-financial stock market indexes to analyze the stock market returns for three country groups within EMU: North, South and Small. The following results hold for both the North and South European countries, while the smallest countries seem to be relatively isolated from international events. First, we find strong evidence of crisis transmission to European non-financials from US non-financials, but not for financials. Second, in order to test how the sovereign debt crisis affects stock market developments we split the crisis in pre- and post-Lehman sub periods. Results show that financials become significantly more dependent on changes in the difference between the Greek and German CDS spreads after Lehman’s collapse, compared to the pre-Lehman sub period. However, this increase is much smaller for non-financials. Third, before the crisis euro appreciations coincide with European stock market decreases, whereas this relationship reverses during the crisis. Finally, this reversal seems to be triggered by Lehman’s collapse.     

Baltic stock markets and the financial crisis of 2008–2009

This study presents new evidence on stock market integration by investigating the linkages between developed European stock markets and emerging stock markets. We focus on three countries in the Baltic region, namely Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania with particular attention to the recent financial crisis of 2008–2009. The study is motivated by traditional stock market studies of integration, which show that developed stock markets are highly integrated, while emerging markets may be segmented. How integrated these emerging stock markets are in a crisis period with respect to the EUROSTOXX50 stock index is an empirical question investigated in this study. While the results of this study demonstrate that the Baltic stock markets were apparently segmented before the crisis, they were highly integrated during the crisis. The results of the variance decomposition analysis show that a large proportion of the forecast variance of the Baltic stock markets can be explained by the EUROSTOXX50 during the crisis. The results from the quantile regressions demonstrate that during the crisis the returns of the lowest quantile were most sensitive to the EUROSTOXX50 stock index. All these results imply less diversification benefits during crises when investors would need them the most.     

Baltic stock markets and the financial crisis of 2008–2009

This study presents new evidence on stock market integration by investigating the linkages between developed European stock markets and emerging stock markets. We focus on three countries in the Baltic region, namely Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania with particular attention to the recent financial crisis of 2008–2009. The study is motivated by traditional stock market studies of integration, which show that developed stock markets are highly integrated, while emerging markets may be segmented. How integrated these emerging stock markets are in a crisis period with respect to the EUROSTOXX50 stock index is an empirical question investigated in this study. While the results of this study demonstrate that the Baltic stock markets were apparently segmented before the crisis, they were highly integrated during the crisis. The results of the variance decomposition analysis show that a large proportion of the forecast variance of the Baltic stock markets can be explained by the EUROSTOXX50 during the crisis. The results from the quantile regressions demonstrate that during the crisis the returns of the lowest quantile were most sensitive to the EUROSTOXX50 stock index. All these results imply less diversification benefits during crises when investors would need them the most.     

The Impulse of Stock Market Volatility and the Market Crash of October 1987

This paper employs the technique of variance decomposition and impulse response functions to examine the dynamic nature of stock market volatility relationships among six major countries during the pre, around, and post October 1987 crash period. During the period around the crash, the US stock market volatility explains much better the variations of the stock market volatility of Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the UK. Our findings clearly indicate that the crash originated in the US and then spread to other major stock markets.     

Relationship between gold and stock markets during the global financial crisis: Evidence from nonlinear causality tests

This paper investigates the nonlinear dynamic co-movements between gold returns, stock market returns and stock market volatility during the recent global financial crisis for the UK (FTSE 100), the US (S&P 500) and Japan (Nikkei 225). Initially, the bivariate dynamic relationships between i) gold returns and stock market returns and ii) gold returns and stock market volatility are tested; both of these relationships are further investigated in the multivariate nonlinear settings by including changes in the three-month LIBOR rates. In this paper correlation integrals based on the bivariate model show significant evidence of nonlinear feedback effect among the variables during the financial crisis period for all the countries understudy. Very limited evidence of significant feedback is found during the pre-crisis period. Results from the multivariate tests including changes in the LIBOR rates provide results similar to the bivariate results. These results imply that gold may not perform well as a safe haven during the financial crisis period due to the bidirectional interdependence between gold returns and, stock returns as well as stock market volatility. However, gold may be used as a hedge against stock market returns and volatility in stable financial conditions.     

Sources of Fluctuations in Islamic,U.S., EU,and Asia Equity Markets: The Roles of Economic Uncertainty,Interest Rates,and Stock Indexes

This article analyzes the economic and financial sources of fluctuations among the U.S. federal funds rates, the U.S. economic policy uncertainty, and the indices of the U.S., European, Asian, and Islamic stock markets. The impulse response analysis shows that the U.S. economic policy uncertainty shocks have significant and negative effects unanimously on the U.S., European, Asian, and Islamic stock markets. A contractionary monetary policy shock, in terms of a higher federal funds rate, has also a statistically significant and negative effect on all of the stock markets. The variance decomposition results indicate that the Islamic stock index is mainly affected by the U.S. stock index shock, thus negating its dichotomy hypothesis. The U.S. economic uncertainty shock explains an important portion of fluctuations for all four stock indices. The degree of synchronization between the EU stock market and other markets has weakened after the U.S. financial crisis.     

China,Japan and the US Stock Markets and the Global Financial Crisis

In this paper, while focusing on the impact that the global financial crisis had on the stock markets of China, Japan, and the United States, the stock-price volatilities and linkage between these three countries are analyzed. In addition, the relationships between macroeconomic variables (real-economy variables and monetary-policy variables) and stock price volatility in each country are investigated. The estimation results of the EGARCH model revealed that although China’s stock price volatility was far greater than those of Japanese and US stock prices, China was less affected by the global financial crisis in 2007 than Japan and the United States. For China, stock price volatility was greater in the early 1990s, shortly after the stock market had been established, than in 2007 when the global financial crisis occurred. Furthermore, it has been revealed that the linkage of Chinese, Japanese, and US stock prices has increased since the global financial crisis. Moreover, Granger causality testing revealed China’s real-economy variables and monetary-policy variables do not affect China’s stock price volatility.     

On the stability of long-run relationships between emerging and US stock markets

While most studies have found no cointegration between emerging and US stock markets, some recent studies do find a long-run relationship exists between these markets. In view of these mixed findings, this study examines the stability of long-run relationships between a number of emerging stock markets and the US stock market using recursive cointegration analysis. The results show that no long-run relationship exists between emerging markets and the US market over most of the sample period throughout 1997. However, we do find clear evidence of cointegration in response to the recent global emerging market crisis in 1997–1998. We conclude that significant crisis events can change the degree of cointegration between international stock markets and, therefore, need to be taken into account in studies of long-run relationships between international stock markets.     

US and Domestic Market Gains and Asian Investors’ Overconfident Trading Behavior

We find that subsequent to both US and domestic market gains, both Asian individual and institutional investors increase their trading and that this effect is more pronounced in bull markets, in periods of relatively favorable investor sentiment, in periods of extremely high market returns, and in markets with short‐sale constraints. We also find that individual investors trade more in response to market gains than institutional investors. Moreover, we find that further integration of Asian stock markets with US stock markets after the Asian financial crisis in 1998 is an important reason for Asian investors’ response to US market gains.     

Interconnected multilayer networks: Quantifying connectedness among global stock and foreign exchange markets

This paper proposes a novel interconnected multilayer network framework based on variance decomposition and block aggregation technique, which can be further served as a tool of linking and measuring cross-market and within-market contagion. We apply it to quantifying connectedness among global stock and foreign exchange (forex) markets, and demonstrate that measuring volatility spillovers of both stock and forex markets simultaneously could support a more comprehensive view for financial risk contagion. We find that (i) stock markets transmit the larger spillovers to forex markets, (ii) the French stock market is the largest risk transmitter in multilayer networks, while some Asian stock markets and most forex markets are net risk receivers, and (iii) interconnected multilayer networks could signal the financial instability during the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 crisis. Our work provides a new perspective and method for studying the cross-market risk contagion.     

Common and country-specific components in national stock prices

Previous studies on cointegration among national stock markets show conflicting results. This paper designs a general state space model to investigate the importance of a common world-wide component and the existence of country-specific components in national stock market indices. For G7 countries, there exist country-specific permanent and transitory components. Based on a variance decomposition analysis, Germany, Italy, and Japan's country-specific permanent shocks account for about half of their total permanent shocks. Most of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom's transitory shocks are country-specific. G7 countries do not seem to cointegrate around one common stochastic trend, and potential long-run international diversification benefits still exist.     

The Effect of US Stock Market Uncertainty on Emerging Market Returns

We investigate the effects of US stock market uncertainty (VIX) on the stock returns in Latin America and aggregate emerging markets before, during, and after the financial crisis. We find that increases in VIX lead to significant immediate and delayed declines in emerging market returns in all periods. However, changes in VIX explained a greater percentage of changes in emerging market returns during the financial crisis than in other periods. The higher US stock market uncertainty exerts a much stronger depressing effect on emerging market returns than their own-lagged and regional returns. Our risk transmission model suggests that a heightened US stock market uncertainty lowers emerging market returns by both reducing the mean returns and raising the variance of returns. The VIX fears raise the volatility of emerging market returns through generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH)-type volatility transmission processes.     

Volatility spillovers between the Chinese and world equity markets

We propose measures of the directional volatility spillovers between the Chinese and world equity markets based on Diebold and Yilmaz's (2011b) forecast-error variance decompositions in a generalized vector autoregressive framework. It was found that the US market had dominant volatility impacts on other markets during the subprime mortgage crisis. The other markets were also very volatile, and driven by bad news, their massive volatilities were transmitted back to the US market. The volatility of the Chinese market has had a significantly positive impact on other markets since 2005. The volatility interactions among the markets of China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan were more prominent than those among the Chinese, Western, and other Asian markets were. The major correction of the Chinese stock market between February and July 2007 significantly contributed to the volatility surges of other markets. Owing to the restrictions on foreign investment, the Chinese stock market was not considerably affected in terms of market volatility during the subprime mortgage crisis.     

Interdependence and Volatility Spillovers Under Market Liberalization: The Case of Istanbul Stock Exchange

This paper analyzes stock returns and volatility relations between the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) and the global market as represented by stock markets in the US, the UK, Japan and Germany. Results from monthly data and multivariate cointegration tests suggest that the ISE became significantly integrated in the global market only in the period following market liberalization in late 1989. We also find evidence based on GARCH estimations that capital liberalization actually mitigated, rather than intensified, volatility in the ISE. Our results further suggest that the Asian crisis in mid‐1997 and the consequent Russian economic meltdown in mid‐1998 are partly responsible for the recent excessive volatility in the Turkish market. The results also identify the US and the UK markets as dominate sources of volatility spillovers for the ISE, even in the period following the Asian‐Russian crises. Consequently, it appears that the two matured markets of the US and the UK shoulder significant responsibility for the stability and financial health of smaller emerging markets like the ISE.     

On market price of risk in Asian capital markets around the Asian flu

This study investigates a contemporaneous relationship between realized market risk premia, and conditional variance and covariance in nine Asian markets and the US. The time period for this study is before, during, and after the Asian financial crisis. A contemporaneous state-dependent capital asset pricing model (CAPM) that allows for negative and positive market prices of variance and covariance risk is investigated. In the light of significant upstate and downstate reward to local and world variance risk for all markets and all periods, we conclude that a market return-generating process is a piecewise function of local and world variance over time. Furthermore, a cross-sectional analysis of upstate and downstate market prices of variance and covariance risk indicates that reward to risk is a mix of reward to local and world variance, depending on the ever-changing correlation with the world market. Our findings are consistent with the one-factor conditional international CAPM.     

Exchange rate variability and the riskiness of US multinational firms: evidence from the Asian financial turmoil

This paper studies the relationship between exchange rate variability and the volatility of the returns of US multinationals. Based on a sample of US multinationals with sales in the Asia-Pacific region, we examine how exchange rate fluctuations around the 1997 Asian financial crisis affected the sensitivity of those firms to stock market risk. The empirical evidence shows that increases in exchange rate variability during the crisis were associated with statistically significant increases in stock return volatility for the multinationals. Some of the increases in volatility were systematic in nature, because the beta coefficients of the firms rose during the period of increased exchange rate variability.     

Financial Crisis and Intertemporal Linkages Across the ASEAN-5 Stock Markets

The stock indices of five ASEAN countries, namely, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines have experienced a structural change after mid-1997 due to the Asian financial crisis, and another shift slightly more than a year later when the markets rebounded. Contemporaneous correlation in stock returns is the strongest and Indonesia leads the movements of the other indices during the crisis. The relative influence of foreign shocks is much more felt during the crisis, as seen in the stronger and longer horizon of responses of all the markets. The stock indices are cointegrated before, but not during the crisis. Price feedbacks between the larger markets of Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia that existed before the crisis disappear once the crisis is over. Short-run linkages of Malaysia with the other markets have weakened after the crisis. With an increase in the degree of exogeneity of its stock market, contemporaneous co-movements with the other markets have reduced and the causal relationships no longer exist.JEL Classification: G15, F30An earlier draft of this paper was presented at the 11th Annual Conference on Pacific Basin Finance, Economics & Accounting held in Taipei. This paper benefited from the discussions at the conference. We are grateful to two anonymous referees for helpful comments and suggestions which led to further improvement of the paper.     

The pricing of foreign exchange risk around the Asian financial crisis: evidence from Taiwan's stock market

The volatile exchange rate movement during the Asian financial crisis has led global investors to re-evaluate the importance of currency exposures in Asian stock markets. In this paper, we examine industry-level currency risk of Taiwan's stock market around the Asian financial crisis. The results show that most export-oriented industries, except for the electronics industry, are positively affected by the depreciation of the New Taiwan Dollars (NTD) against the US Dollars (USD). We also find that the magnitude of currency risk is less for banking and electronics industries in the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE) than for those in the over-the-counter (OTC) security exchange. Our results are consistent with the findings of Chow et al. (J. Financial Res. 2 (1997b) 191) and have important implications for international investors with exposures in Taiwan's stock market.