Is There a Relationship between Country Classification and Market Efficiency : A Global Investigation

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to test the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) for countries at different economic development levels. The FTSE Country Classification was used to reveal the economic development of 17 developed and 12 emerging markets. The sampling period is between 2005 and 2013. In order to test market efficiency, Portmanteau Q test, the runs test, the single and multiple variance ratio (VR) tests were used. The results show that the weak-form market efficiency is becoming prevalent in the Advanced Emerging markets. The striking finding of the paper presents that the market efficiency is associated with the market evolution. As the economies and markets of countries evolve and meet the criteria for promotion to upper country classification, they become weak-form efficient. Further, the findings reveal the facts that the markets which suffer from severe financial and political crises, or belong to low ranked emerging markets are unlikely to be efficient.