The predictive ability of the dividend-price ratio for future stock returns does not necessarily imply that dividend-price ratios predict future stock prices. Stock returns consist of both a capital gain and a dividend yield component, and we show that predictability of stock returns by lagged...

The advent of the single currency within the European Union provides a natural experiment to measure how the cost of equity changes as globalization takes place. This is because the launch of the single currency has led to the elimination of currency-related restrictions on the composition of...

This paper shows that during the 1990s the process of gradual economic and monetary integration, which eventually led to EMU, also resulted in a reduction in the equity cost of capital. A similar reduction was not present in the three EU countries which chose not to enter the Eurozone. There was...

The paper examines whether or not the convergence of European economies towards Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and the launch of the single currency leads to an increase in stock market integration through a reduction in investment barriers. We estimate a conditional asset pricing model,...