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Diversification in euro area stock markets: Country versus industry

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  • Moerman, Gerard A.
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    Abstract

    The harmonization of fiscal and economic policy within the European Monetary Union (EMU) has had a considerable impact on the economies of member countries. In particular, several studies indicate that the proceeding economic integration among euro area countries has important consequences for the factors driving asset returns in financial markets. However, these studies rely on one specific methodology [Heston, S.L., Rouwenhorst, K.G., 1994. Does industrial structure explain the benefits of international diversification? Journal of Financial Economics 36, 3-27; Heston, S.L., Rouwenhorst, K.G., 1995. Industry and country effects in international stock returns. Journal of Portfolio Management Spring, 53-58], that has recently been criticized as too restrictive. This study adopts a mean-variance approach instead. Using recent euro area stock markets data, we find strong evidence that diversification over industries yields more efficient portfolios than diversification over countries.

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    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261-5606(08)00085-5
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    Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Journal of International Money and Finance.

    Volume (Year): 27 (2008)
    Issue (Month): 7 (November)
    Pages: 1122-1134

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    Handle: RePEc:eee:jimfin:v:27:y:2008:i:7:p:1122-1134
    Contact details of provider: Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/30443

    Keywords: EMU Euro area stock markets Portfolio diversification Industry factors Country factors European integration process;

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    1. Brooks, Robin & Del Negro, Marco, 2004. "The rise in comovement across national stock markets: market integration or IT bubble?," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 11(5), pages 659-680, December.
    2. Kpate ADJAOUTÉ, & Jean-Pierre DANTHINE, 2000. "EMU and Portfolio Diversification Opportunities," FAME Research Paper Series rp31, International Center for Financial Asset Management and Engineering.
    3. Kpate Adjaoute & Jean-Pierre Danthine, 2004. "Portfolio diversification: alive and well in Euro-land!," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(17), pages 1225-1231.
    4. Gikas A. Hardouvelis & Dimitrios Malliaropulos & Richard Priestley, 2006. "EMU and European Stock Market Integration," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 79(1), pages 365-392, January.
    5. Dusan Isakov & Frédéric Sonney, 2004. "Are Practitioners Right? On the Relative Importance of Industrial Factors in International Stock Returns," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 140(III), pages 355-379, September.
    6. Flavin, Thomas J., 2004. "The effect of the Euro on country versus industry portfolio diversification," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 23(7-8), pages 1137-1158.
    7. Harry Markowitz, 1952. "Portfolio Selection," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 7(1), pages 77-91, 03.
    8. Griffin, John M. & Andrew Karolyi, G., 1998. "Another look at the role of the industrial structure of markets for international diversification strategies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 351-373, December.
    9. Roll, Richard, 1992. " Industrial Structure and the Comparative Behavior of International Stock Market Indices," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(1), pages 3-41, March.
    10. Francesca Carrieri & Vihang Errunza & Sergei Sarkissian, 2004. "Industry Risk and Market Integration," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(2), pages 207-221, February.
    11. Paul EHLING & Sofia B. RAMOS, 2003. "Geographical versus Industrial Diversification: A Mean Variance Spanning Approach," FAME Research Paper Series rp80, International Center for Financial Asset Management and Engineering.
    12. Heston, Steven L. & Rouwenhorst, K. Geert, 1994. "Does industrial structure explain the benefits of international diversification?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 3-27, August.
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