Are PIIGS stock markets efficient?

Dilip Kumar

Studies in Economics and Finance, 2013, vol. 30, issue 3, 209-225

Abstract: Purpose - This paper aims to test the finite sample properties of the automatic variance ratio (AVR) test and suggest suitable measure to improve its small sample properties under conditional heteroskedasticity and apply it to test the martingale hypothesis in the stock prices of the Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain (PIIGS economies) markets. This paper also seeks to investigate that “If the time series is not martingale, then what else?” Design/methodology/approach - Monte Carlo experiments have been undertaken to test the small sample properties of automatic variance ratio (AVR) test. The study uses AVR test on daily and weekly data of the indices to investigate their martingale behaviour. It uses detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) and BDS test statistics to answer, “If not martingale, then what else?”. The study also applies moving subsample approach to examine the dynamic behavior of stock prices and to obtain inferential findings robust to possible structural changes and presence of influential outliers. Findings - The author finds that weighted bootstrap procedure significantly improves the small sample properties of AVR tests under conditional heteroskedasticity. The results provide evidence in support of the weak‐form efficiency of Italy and Spain. But Portugal, Ireland and Greece exhibit signs of long memory in the stock prices. All indices also exhibit chaotic characteristics. Originality/value - This paper has both methodological and empirical originality. On the methodological aspect, the author proposes weighted bootstrap procedure on AVR test to improve its small sample properties. On the empirical side, the study finds that all stocks exhibit dynamic behavioral characteristics which change over time.

Keywords: Market efficiency; Weighted bootstrap; Automatic variance‐ratio test; Return predictability; Detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA); Stock markets; Portugal; Ireland; Italy; Greece; Spain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:sefpps:v:30:y:2013:i:3:p:209-225

DOI: 10.1108/SEF-09-2011-0074

Access Statistics for this article

Studies in Economics and Finance is currently edited by Prof Niklas Wagner

More articles in Studies in Economics and Finance from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().