As a very popular research topic, the integration among financial markets has been studied by many researchers. This thesis aims to investigate the effect of financial integration on European markets from another point of view. For this reason, various researches have been combined to assess the impact of financial integration on different types of financial markets. This thesis focuses primarily on the CESEE region and covers Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Turkey. The countries are selected to be a sample from EU member states and EU candidates. Some CESEE countries are not included in the research due to some data limitations (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Russia, and Ukraine). This study uses and combines the results of the various research methodologies such as wavelet technique, cluster analysis, and GARCH models. After the introduction of the thesis and hypotheses, the second chapter explains financial integration and its impacts on Central, Eastern, and Southeastern European economies. In the third chapter of this thesis, cluster analysis gives us an overview of the banking sector clusters in Europe. “The Cluster Analysis of the Banking Sector in Europe” which is a part of “Economics and Management of Global Value Chains: Regional Clusters, Local Networks, and Entrepreneurship” was written with my co-author Saysi Sayaseng. By using banking sector ratios, similarities and differences in the sector have been analyzed. This chapter provides hints about the integrity of the union banking sector. The following chapter employs a wavelet method to investigate the co-movements of stock markets during the debt crisis and after with a focus on central and southeastern European economies and a member candidate country. “A Wavelet Coherence Analysis: Contagion in Emerging Countries Stock Markets” which was published in Periodica Polytechnica Social and Management Sciences is written with my co-author Ilhami ...
