Stock Market Development and Economic Growth: The Case of Selected African Countries

Abstract: This paper studies the effect of stock market development on economic growth in 14 African countries in a dynamic panel data modelling setting. Results largely show a positive relationship between stock market development and economic growth. Further analyses, based on the level of economic development and stock market capitalization, are also conducted. The results reveal that the positive influence of stock market development on economic growth is significant for countries classified as upper middle income economies. On the basis of market capitalization groupings, stock market developments play a significant role in growth only for moderately capitalized markets. The general trend in results shows that low income African countries and less developed stock markets need to grow more and develop their markets to elicit economic gains from stock markets.     

Equity,Bonds, Institutional Debt and Economic Growth: Evidence from South Africa

We examine the finance‐growth nexus in South Africa accounting for the role of bond markets, stock markets, and bank and non‐bank financial intermediaries using a vector autoregressive technique. Extant empirical literature has largely accounted for only banks and stock markets, ignoring bond market and non‐bank financial intermediaries. We find that bond market development affects economic growth in South Africa, and no similar effect is observed for the bank and non‐bank financial intermediaries and the stock market. Our finding shows that examination of individual elements of the financial system is important in understanding the unique effect of each on growth. The observation that the bond market rather than stock market, bank and non‐bank institutions promote economic growth in South Africa induces an intriguing question as to what unique roles bond markets play that the intermediaries and equity market are unable to play.     

Efficiency,Cointegration and Contagion in Equity Markets: Evidence from China,Japan and South Korea*

This paper empirically examines whether three East Asian stock markets, namely, those of China, Japan and South Korea, are individually and/or jointly efficient, and whether contagion exists between the cointegrated markets. While individual market efficiency is examined through testing for the random walk hypothesis, joint market efficiency is examined through testing for cointegration and contagion. The present study finds that the hypothesis of individual market efficiency is strongly rejected for the Chinese stock market, but not for the Japanese and the South Korean stock markets. However, when testing for cointegration, market efficiency is strongly rejected for all these markets. We take a simple case of contagion and find that although there is a long‐term relationship among the three markets, the contagion hypothesis cannot be rejected only between Japanese and South Korean stock markets, indicating short‐run portfolio diversification benefits from these two markets.     

Private capital flows,stock market and economic growth in developed and developing countries: A comparative analysis

Empirically we investigate how three types of private capital flows could promote economic growth in recipient developed and developing countries. Our focus is on the role of stock markets as a channel through which foreign capital flows could promote growth. The findings reveal that FDI exhibits a positive impact on growth, while both foreign debt and portfolio investment have a negative impact on growth in all sample countries. However, our results indicate that stock markets might be a significant channel or leading institutional factor through which capital flows affect economic growth. The findings provide clear implications that the negative impact of private capital flows can be transformed into a positive one if the stock market development has attained a certain threshold level, regardless of whether it is in developed or developing countries.     

Interactions of stock markets within the greater China economic bloc

This paper investigates what types of mutual relationships exist among the stock markets of the Greater China economic bloc, which include stock markets in Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as stock markets in Shanghai and Shenzhen. Using the unit root test, co‐integration analysis, and vector error correction model (VECM), this paper analyzes interrelationships among daily stock indices for the period from the beginning of 1992 to the end of 2001. Test results indicate the existence of one co‐integrating vector, implying that a long‐run equilibrium relationship holds among the four stock indices. Variance decomposition of forecast errors provides evidence that the Shenzhen stock market is the market most heavily influenced by the unexpected variations of other markets in the Greater China economic bloc.     

基于在岸金融市场视角的日元国际化进程与启示

最近几年,日元国际化程度不见提高,反而不断被边缘化,成为国际经济活动中的非主流货币。为此,文章从微观角度研究日本国内金融市场对日元国际化进程的支持力度。研究发现,受国内经济长期衰退影响,日本股票市场表现不及其他发达市场;其债券市场发展不平衡,国债市场独大,公司债券市场萎靡,并且资本项目开放不完全限制了债券市场发展;其衍生品市场也缺乏国际竞争力。换言之,日本在岸金融市场发展直接制约了日元国际化进程。     

Prospects and Challenges for Developing Securities Markets in Ethiopia: An Analytical Review

This paper is an analytical review of the prospects and challenges of developing securities markets in Ethiopia. With the fall of communism and the emergence of capitalism, many countries around the world are moving toward market‐oriented economies and securities markets are springing up on all continents around the globe. Securities markets have come to symbolize to many the essence of capitalistic economic relations. When studying the economies of developing countries, the first thing that becomes apparent is the existence of immense and, to a considerable extent, unemployed human resources as well as an acute shortage of capital. Shortage of capital is a major constraint in the realization of economic development. Recognizing the role that securities markets play in mobilizing capital, more than a dozen African countries have established stock markets. Ethiopia is not one of them. There is little current research which focuses on Africa's securities markets. This study helps to contribute to that effort by focusing on Ethiopia, the second largest country in sub‐Saharan Africa plagued with major economic problems. The paper concludes by recommending the establishment of a stock market and providing suggestions on how to do it.     

Stock prices and the efficient market hypothesis: Evidence from a panel stationary test with structural breaks

This paper investigates whether the efficient market hypothesis holds in stock markets under different economic development levels over the period January 1999 to May 2007. We employ a state-of-the-art panel data stationarity test which incorporates multiple structural breaks. Evidence indicates that when accommodating general forms of cross-sectional dependence as well as controlling for finite-sample bias, the real stock price series appear to be stationary in 32 developed and 26 developing countries, respectively, which is in sharp contrast to the findings in the existing literature. Thus, real stock price indices are stationary processes that are inconsistent with the efficient market hypothesis. This shows the presence of profitable arbitrage opportunities among stock markets. According to these estimated structural breakpoints, we are also able to discover the reason for why there has been a huge impact from past stock prices.     

Interaction between Foreign and Domestic Investors in the Korean Stock and Futures Markets*

The present paper analyzes the behavioral relations of major investor groups in the stabilized Korean stock and futures markets after the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Investor groups cannot be classified as positive or negative feedback traders on market returns when both stock and futures markets are considered, which is inconsistent with the results in Ghysels and Seon (2005). Foreign investors and domestic institutions tend to take opposite positions in both markets. The impact of foreign investors on the basis change is significantly negative in the futures market, whereas domestic institutions have a negative relation in the stock market. This supports the view that selling activity of foreign investors in the futures market pulls the futures price down compared with the index value and, consequently, induces the reverse cash‐and‐carry trade of domestic institutions. This relationship, which negatively influenced the Korean economy during the crisis, as shown in Ghysels and Seon (2005), still exists in the Korean financial markets.     

Stock Markets,Banks and Long Run Economic Growth: A Panel Cointegration-Based Analysis

The aim of this paper is to investigate the long run relationship between the development of banks and stock markets and economic growth. We make use of a Johansen-based panel cointegration methodology allowing for cross-country dependence to test the number of cointegrating vectors among these three variables for 5 developing countries. In addition, we test the direction of potential causality between financial and economic development. Our results conclude to the existence of a single cointegrating vector between financial development and growth and of causality going from financial development to economic growth. We find little evidence of reverse causation as well as bi-directional causality. We interpret this as evidence supporting the significance of financial development for economic development although banks and stock markets may have different effects depending on the level of economic development.     

Financial Liberalization and Stock Market Efficiency: Causality Analysis of Emerging Markets

This paper studies the long- and short-run relationship between financial liberalization and stock market efficiency. It expands the extant body of knowledge by investigating Granger causality relationship applying mean group, common correlated effect mean group and common correlated effect pooled estimator to balanced panel data for 27 emerging markets over the period 1996–2011. We find evidence of financial liberalization Granger causes stock market efficiency, which is consistent with liberalization leads to efficiency hypothesis. Subsequently, our work makes a fresh contribution to the literature by focusing on informational efficiency of stock markets rather than financial development. Furthermore, we find that a negative long-term relationship between financial liberalization and stock return autocorrelation coexists with a positive short-term relationship between the two. The findings that financial liberalization, which has a deteriorated effect on stock market efficiency in the short-run, but positive impact in the long-run, allow us to draw an analogy similar to the J-curve hypothesis.     

中国资产价格财富效应的比较与检验

文章对1991--2006年中国住宅和股票市场价格波动的财富效应进行实证检验,并利用脉冲响应函数和方差分解进一步分析消费对资产价格波动冲击的动态响应过程。结论表明,现阶段中国住宅市场和股票市场价格波动的财富效应整体上均呈现为负向效应,且住宅市场价格波动对消费的影响滞后期较长,影响力度高于股票价格波动的影响力度。因此,必须采取有力措施保持资产价格与经济基础的均衡关系,防范负财富效应对我国整体经济造成的负面影响,为资产价格发挥积极财富效应创造良好市场环境。     

股改前后中国A股市场有效性广义谱方法检验

股改是我国资本市场发展过程中的一项重大制度变革,本文对股改前后A股市场的有效性分别进行了检验。我们采用的广义谱方法考虑了高频时间序列的特征事实,可以检测出序列存在的线性和非线性序列依赖,允许存在未知形式的条件异方差,并且可以检验所有的滞后阶数,具有较强的检验效力。检验结果表明,股改前市场是非有效的,股改之后市场达到了弱式有效。本文从股权的全流通效应、股市参与度的提升两个角度给出了实证结果的经济解释。     

亚太地区股票市场的联动程度——基于次级贷冲击的研究

本文从长期关系、短期作用和方差分解方面,分析了次级贷危机前后亚太股市的联动程度。首先,协整检验表明,亚太股市存在长期均衡关系,但这种关系在次级贷危机前后发生了明显的结构转变。其次,Granger非因果检验表明,亚太股市在次级贷危机后,市场间短期作用大大加强。再次,我们定义了单个市场联动程度判断准则,并且结合方差分解发现,亚太地区股市在次级贷危机后单个市场独立性显著降低。总体而言,亚太地区股市在次级贷危机之后联动程度进一步加强,支持弱分割市场理论;美国股市是地区股市领导者;日本股市变化最大,次级贷危机后,市场独立性变得最弱;中国大陆股市也不断融入区域市场。建议政府和投资者对于本国(本地区)之外的实体经济和股市风险都要密切关注。     

收益波动与随机冲击的非对称性影响：中国与美国股票市场的对比

通过讨论股票收益与随机;中击之间的关系,对中国股票市场和美国股票市场进行了对比研究。研究中使用了中国上海和深圳股票市场1990年12月31日至2005年12月30日的两市A股算术平均周指,以及美国股票市场1973年1月2日至2004年月12月30日的标准普尔500周指。在进行经验研究的过程中,分别使用了线性GARCH模型和GJR—GARCH模型计量股票收益的条件波动——即模型中的条件方差。研究发现,中国股票市场自1990年——1995年波动剧烈,之后波动趋于平缓,而美国股票市场在研究期间内收益波动一直处于一定范围内。同时还发现,美国股票市场的随机冲击对股票收益产生非对称性影响,即负冲击使股票收益产生的波动大于正冲击。而在中国股票市场却找不到相似的证据。鉴于对中国股票市场收益波动的研究结果,在剔除1996年以前的数据之后又进行了扩展研究,但是似然比率检验结果表明,正冲击对股票收益的影响还要略强于负冲击。     

The impact of economic fundamentals on stock markets in southern Africa

The issue of whether stock markets reflect economic fundamentals or speculative bubbles is an important one for their potential role in allocating capital, and relates to a policy issue of whether stock markets should be encouraged in developing countries. This article examines the impact of both domestic and foreign economic factors on real stock market returns in three southern African stock markets – South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana, from 1985-95 – using cointegration and error correction techniques. It finds that, while in all cases stock markets are influenced by domestic economic growth, there are no common patterns beyond this. The influence of other domestic and economic variables depends on the size, openness and market-orientation of the individual economies, as well as the size and liquidity of the various stock exchanges. Where foreign economic variables are important, they appear to be those related to trade, rather than international capital flows, indicating that there is little integration of these capital markets, whether regionally or internationally.     

The current global financial crisis: Do Asian stock markets show contagion or interdependence effects?

In the framework of the current global economic crisis, a pertinent question is whether the world economies are suffering from contagion or interdependence effects. With its origins in the US sub-prime mortgage market crisis starting at the end of 2007, when a loss of confidence by investors in the value of securitized mortgages resulted in a liquidity crisis, hard-hitting the banking system and rapidly spreading into the financial markets, the effects of the crisis were automatically reflected in the rest of the world economies. These effects become more severe as the rest of the world is facing economic and financial instability. Therefore, the American shock can be seen as the trigger that revealed the other economies’ own financial problems. The main finding of this paper shows that the US stock markets are not generating contagious effects into the Asian stock markets. However, strong evidence of volatility transmission derived from these economies’ interlinkages has been detected.     

中日股票市场发行制度比较研究

股票发行制度是一国资本市场的准入制度,对股票市场的健康发展起着重要作用。由于历史条件和经济环境的影响,中国和日本的股票市场规模及效率不同,所以其发行制度也存在很大差异。分析表明,这些差异主要体现在发行审核体制、信息披露制度和发行定价这3个方面,中国在完善股票市场发行制度方面应该关注这些方面的深远影响。     

美国次级房贷危机及其启示

美国次级房贷危机已对全球股市形成冲击,美国房地产降温将拖累美国经济,并对中国经济产生较大影响。本文分析了此次美国次级房贷危机及其对中国造成的影响,并由此提出了相关对策,以期对中国房地产市场以警示。     

Understanding the Growth of African Financial Markets*

Abstract: This paper examines empirically the determinants of financial market development in Africa with an emphasis on banking systems and stock markets. The results show that income level, creditor rights protection, financial repression, and political risk are the main determinants of banking sector development in Africa, and that stock market liquidity, domestic savings, banking sector development, and political risk are the main determinants of stock market development. We also find that liberalizing the capital account promotes financial market development only in countries with high incomes, well‐developed institutions, or both. The powerful impacts of political risk on both banking sector and stock market development suggest that resolution of political risk may be important to the development of African financial markets.