Stock Prices, Consumer Sentiment, And Economic Activity: Some Robust Bilateral Causality Tests For The US And The UK

Abstract

This paper performs robust bilateral Granger causality tests for stock prices, consumer sentiment, and economic activity for the US and the UK. The robust test procedures involve the use of recently developed time series analysis of nonstationary data with possible structural breaks. Applying a battery of such tests, the paper finds the underlying data to be generally nonstationary and noncointegrated, even after allowing for possible breaks in the data, thus implying that the standard bilateral Granger causality tests are robust. The empirical results indicate the presence of unidirectional causality from stock prices to consumer sentiment for both countries. Given that stock prices drive consumer sentiment, we perform additional causality tests to determine the effect of consumer sentiment on the economy. Our finding of a unidirectional causality from consumer sentiment to the economy in both countries is consistent with a chain of causality from stock prices to consumer sentiment to the economy.