Volatility Contagion across the Equity Markets of Developed and Emerging Market Economies

Abstract

Using variance risk premiums (VRPs) nonparametrically calculated from equity markets in selected major developed economies and emerging market economies (EMEs) over 2007–15, this chapter documents the correlation of VRPs across markets, examining whether equity fund flows work as a path through which VRPs spill over globally. It finds that VRPs tend to spike up during market turmoil such as the peak of the global financial crisis and the European debt crisis; that all cross-equity market correlations of VRPs are positive, and that some economy pairs exhibit high levels of the correlation. In terms of volatility contagion, it finds that an increase in US VRPs significantly reduces equity fund flows to other developed economies, but not those to EMEs, following the global financial crisis. Two-stage least squares estimation results show that equity fund flows are a channel for spillover of US VRPs to VRPs in other developed economies.