This paper analyses the leading characteristics of the Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) with respect to stock market returns for 11 New EU Member States. It proposes novel CCI weights by minimizing mean squared errors from regression forecasting equations, using CCI lags as regressors. With...

Building on Vinhas de Souza (and Vinhas de Souza and Tudela), this chapter briefly describes the historical process of financial liberalization and integration of Baltic and Central European Countries (BCECs) since the 1990s. It investigates the hypotheses that the type of financial integration...