We present a new method to examine financial contagion, defined as a sudden strengthening of shock transmission between financial markets. In particular, we develop a correlation-like measure of synchronicity between markets that is straightforward to implement while being insensitive to heteroskedasticity of market returns. In fact, synchronicity would perfectly coincide with the dynamic conditional correlation (DCC) coefficient if the latter could be calculated using the `true' models for the variance and covariance of the market returns. When analysing the 1997 East Asian crisis and the current sub-prime mortgage crisis, we find no evidence that stock market returns are more contagious during periods of turmoil than during tranquil times.          Â
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Paper provided by Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department in its series DNB Working Papers with number
217.
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Franklin Allen & Douglas Gale, 2001.
"Financial Contagion,"
Journal of Political Economy,
University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(1), pages 1-33, February.
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Allen, Franklin & Gale, Douglas, 1998.
"Financial Contagion,"
Working Papers
98-33, C.V. Starr Center for Applied Economics, New York University.
[Downloadable!]