Knowledge that Transforms

This paper analyzes the robustness of the day-of-the-week (DOW) and weekend effects to alternative estimation and testing procedures. The results show that sample size can distort the interpretation of classical test statistics unless the significance level is adjusted downward. Specification tests reveal widespread departures from OLS assumptions. Hypothesis tests results are reported using robust econometric methods and a GARCH model. The strength of the DOW and weekend effect evidence appears to depend on the estimation and testing method. Both effects seem to have disappeared by 1975.

W. V. Harlow, Ramesh K. S. Rao, Asset Pricing in a Generalized Mean-Lower Partial Moment Framework: Theory and Evidence, The Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Vol. 24, No. 3 (Sep., 1989), pp. 285-311

This paper provides a simple method to account for heteroskedasticity and cross-sectional dependence in samples with large cross sections and relatively few time-series observations. The method is motivated by cross-sectional regression studies in finance and accounting. Simulation evidence suggests that these estimators are dependable in small samples and may be useful when generalized least squares is infeasible, unreliable, or computationally too burdensome. We also consider efficiency issues and show that, in principle, asymptotic efficiency can be improved using a technique due to Cragg (1983).

This paper investigates the international transmission mechanism of stock market movements by estimating a nine-market vector autoregression (VAR) system. Using simulated responses of the estimated VAR system, we (i) locate all the main channels of interactions among national stock markets, and (ii) trace out the dynamic responses of one market to innovations in another. Generally speaking, a substantial amount of multi-lateral interaction is detected among national stock markets. Innovations in the U.S. are rapidly transmitted to other markets in a clearly recognizable fashion, whereas no single foreign market can significantly explain the U.S. market movements. Also, the dynamic response pattern is found to be generally consistent with the notion of informationally efficient international stock markets.