Liquidity commonality-economic cycle nexus in emerging Asian economies: An ARDL approach

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of liquidity commonality on the economic cycle for 7 emerging Asian economies over a period of 1997-2018, using Autoregressive Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach to Cointegration. Gross domestic investment, total consumption expenditure, net trade, and unemployment rate are studied as macro variables in the analysis. The nexus has been discussed both in the short-run and long-run. A significant relationship between economic growth and stock market liquidity commonality is found for large economies including China, India, Indonesia, and Malaysia; however, we found mixed evidence regarding the direction of the relationship for different economies. The aggregate analysis revealed that liquidity commonality has a positive impact on economic growth in the short-run and a negative association in the long-run. As a non-diversifiable risk factor, liquidity co-movement shocks spread the market wide and disrupt the overall functioning of financial markets and eventually affect the economy. For regulators and policymakers and particularly for those in emerging economies, understanding the factors affecting economic cycles and recognizing their dynamics and magnitude is important for policy coordination and market development. Further, the firms in Asian markets operate in legal and regulatory environments distinct from those of firms analyzed in the previous literature. A major knowledge gap pertaining to Asian emerging markets serves as the primary motivation for this study.