We study the evolution of global equity market integration using US dollar denominated iShares. Designed to mimic the movements of MSCI indices, these securities provide an easy pool of international diversification products for the investor. As such they allow us to conduct an analysis of the...

This paper examines the linkages between the Russian stock market and those of its largest neighbors in Central and Eastern Europe, and the world stock markets over the 10 year period 1995-2004. What we find is that there was a major change in the nature of these relationships after the so...

This paper presents an analysis of pension funds’ performance in Poland and Hungary as representative Eastern Central European countries. In the theoretical literature it is argued that investment limits and performance regulations may have a negative influence on the performance of funds. In...

The minimum spanning tree concept from physics is used to study the process of market integration for a large group of national stock market indices. We show how the tree grows over time and describe the dynamics of its various characteristics. Over the period studied, 1997-2006, the tree shows...

We find that investors across the globe differentially prefer dividend-paying stocks over non-dividend-paying stocks more in declining markets than in advancing markets, whether in developed or emerging markets or before or after the 2008 global crisis, even accounting for growth opportunities,...

Despite their importance there is a relative dearth on spillovers within the industrial metal class. This is particularly acute in regard to volatility spillovers. Using the Diebold and Yilmaz (2009) methodology we analyze these metals over a 20 year period, showing the evolution of volatility...

Much academic and investor analysis and commentary sees the four main precious metals as a single market, integrated and to some degree with each metal a substitute for the other. This proposition, which can be explicit or implicit can be challenged on economic grounds and on statistical...

Recent research has identified the presence of behavioral influences on traders in predominantly professionally traded markets such as oil, gold, and foreign exchange. Previous research had largely confined behavioral-based investigations to equity markets due to an assumption that noise traders...

We offer the first examination of whether the gold forward rate is an unbiased predictor of the future gold spot rate. We find strong evidence that it is not, particularly at longer maturities. Building on Aggarwal and Zong's (2008) approach to allow for investor risk aversion, we then examine...

We investigate key macroeconomic factors that impact the price returns of precious metals markets. The markets investigated were gold, silver, platinum and palladium; whereas the macroeconomic factors accommodated business cycle, monetary environment and financial market sentiment factors. The...