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Journal of Finance Vol. 62 No. 3 2007

Global Growth Opportunities and Market Integration

Geert Bekaert; Campbell R. Harvey; Christian Lundblad1; Stephan Siegel2,1

1 Duke University · 2 Center for Economic and Policy Research

Abstract

We propose an exogenous measure of a country's growth opportunities by interacting the country's local industry mix with global price to earnings ( PE ) ratios. We find that these exogenous growth opportunities predict future changes in real GDP and investment in a large panel of countries. This relation is strongest in countries that have liberalized their capital accounts, equity markets, and banking systems. We also find that financial development, external finance dependence, and investor protection measures are much less important in aligning growth opportunities with growth than is capital market openness. Finally, we formulate new tests of market integration and segmentation by linking local and global PE ratios to relative economic growth.

DOI
10.1111/j.1540-6261.2007.01231.x
Volume
62
Issue
3
Pages
1081-1137
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib crossref openalex

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