Financial Integration of Stock Markets among New EU Member States and the Euro Area

The paper considers the empirical dimension of financial integration among stock-exchange markets in four new European Union member states (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia) in comparison with the euro area. The main objective is to test for the existence and determine the degree of the four states’ financial integration relative to the euro currency union. The analysis is performed at the country level (using national stock-exchange indices) and at the sectoral level (considering banking, chemical, electricity, and telecommunication indices). Our empirical evaluation consists of (1) a harmonization analysis (by means of standard and rolling correlation analysis) to outline the overall pattern of integration; (2) the application of the concept of beta convergence (through the use of time series, panel, and state-space techniques) to identify the speed of integration; and (3) the application of so-called sigma convergence to measure the degree of integration. We find evidence of respective stock-market integration on both national and sectoral levels between the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and the euro area.