Abstract
The main objective of this paper is to assess the effect of the Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) on the correlation between international stock markets on a sectorial level. The paper attempts to identify the most affected sectors, besides highlighting the highly impacted countries by BITs signing, to compare the intensity of the effect based on the nature of the business operation. Analyzing the synchronization between international stock markets has been a crucial topic in the literature due to its criticality in grasping the benefits of international portfolio diversification. The extensive historical literature demonstrated and reviewed the co-movements between multiple global equity markets on a market index level. Nevertheless, this paper will add to this literature by assessing the impact of the BITs on the international stock market integration, which to our knowledge, has not been previously examined, especially on a sectorial level. In addition, the paper will add to the literature by expanding the research scale to include eight developed and sixteen developing countries over a time horizon extended from 1992 to 2022, which is considerably a wide span with respect to the previous literature. The quantitative method utilized in the paper adopted other macroeconomic indicators in order to better assess the degree of the effect of the BITs on the stock market correlation. The study findings can be summarized as follows: signing BITs results in a higher correlation between the concerned pair-wise countries. The strength of the correlation between the pair-wise countries seemingly differs depending on the industry and the time period. This study can be of a great importance for policymakers to mitigate the negative risk associated with the integration between the global stock markets during stability and volatility periods; and also, for the investors considering the rewards of international portfolio diversification that are lessened due to the integration between the international equity markets.
School
School of Business
Department
Management Department
Degree Name
MS in Finance
Graduation Date
Spring 6-15-2023
Submission Date
5-20-2023
First Advisor
Mina Ayad
Committee Member 1
Wael Abdallah
Committee Member 2
Rim Cherif
Extent
46 p.
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Institutional Review Board (IRB) Approval
Not necessary for this item
Recommended Citation
APA Citation
Elshenawy, N.
(2023).The Effect of Bilateral Investment Treaties on the correlation between international stock markets [Master's Thesis, the American University in Cairo]. AUC Knowledge Fountain.
https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/2099
MLA Citation
Elshenawy, Nourhan. The Effect of Bilateral Investment Treaties on the correlation between international stock markets. 2023. American University in Cairo, Master's Thesis. AUC Knowledge Fountain.
https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/2099