IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/agr/journl/vxxiiiy2016i1(606)p213-236.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Economic freedom index and stock returns in Malaysia

Author

Listed:
  • Devinaga RASIAH

    (Multimedia University, Melaka, Malaysia)

  • Tay Lee YING

    (Multimedia University, Melaka, Malaysia)

  • Sakiru Adebola SOLARIN

    (Multimedia University, Melaka, Malaysia)

Abstract

The objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between economic freedom index and stock return in the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange, Malaysia for the period, 1995 to 2013. The analysis is conducted within the framework of Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), while using the pooled ordinary least square as the method of estimation. The findings show that economic freedom index does not have significant impact on stock returns in the long run. However, overall economic freedom index has significant impact on stock returns in the short run. We further consider the impact of five components of economic freedom index. It is observed that the components do not have significant long run impact on stock returns. The components-limited government and open markets- have strong short run significant explaining powers. The results are consistent across different levels of inflation and wealth in Malaysia. The results indicate that investors can obtain better mean-variance efficiency when a country exhibit greater economic freedom. This paper should be of interest to both investors and market researchers.

Suggested Citation

  • Devinaga RASIAH & Tay Lee YING & Sakiru Adebola SOLARIN, 2016. "Economic freedom index and stock returns in Malaysia," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania / Editura Economica, vol. 0(1(606), S), pages 213-236, Spring.
    • Handle: RePEc:agr:journl:v:xxiii:y:2016:i:1(606):p:213-236
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://store.ectap.ro/articole/1173.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://www.ectap.ro/articol.php?id=1173&rid=122
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lombardo, Davide & Pagano, Marco, 1999. "Legal Determinants of the Return on Equity," CEPR Discussion Papers 2275, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Engle, Robert & Granger, Clive, 2015. "Co-integration and error correction: Representation, estimation, and testing," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 39(3), pages 106-135.
    3. La Porta, Rafael, et al, 1997. "Trust in Large Organizations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(2), pages 333-338, May.
    4. La Porta, Rafael & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1997. "Legal Determinants of External Finance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(3), pages 1131-1150, July.
    5. Pedroni, Peter, 2004. "Panel Cointegration: Asymptotic And Finite Sample Properties Of Pooled Time Series Tests With An Application To The Ppp Hypothesis," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(3), pages 597-625, June.
    6. Marshall L. Stocker, 2005. "Equity Returns And Economic Freedom," Cato Journal, Cato Journal, Cato Institute, vol. 25(3), pages 583-594, Fall.
    7. William F. Sharpe, 1964. "Capital Asset Prices: A Theory Of Market Equilibrium Under Conditions Of Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 19(3), pages 425-442, September.
    8. Bekaert, Geert & Harvey, Campbell R. & Lundblad, Christian, 2005. "Does financial liberalization spur growth?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 3-55, July.
    9. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    10. Blau, Benjamin M. & Brough, Tyler J. & Thomas, Diana W., 2014. "Economic freedom and the stability of stock prices: A cross-country analysis," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 182-196.
    11. Gwartney, James & Lawson, Robert, 2003. "The concept and measurement of economic freedom," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 405-430, September.
    12. Laurence Booth & Varouj Aivazian & Asli Demirguc‐Kunt & Vojislav Maksimovic, 2001. "Capital Structures in Developing Countries," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(1), pages 87-130, February.
    13. Smimou, Kamal & Karabegovic, Amela, 2010. "On the relationship between economic freedom and equity returns in the emerging markets: Evidence from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) stock markets," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 119-151, June.
    14. Dewandaru, Ginanjar & Rizvi, Syed Aun R. & Bacha, Obiyathulla I. & Masih, Mansur, 2014. "What factors explain stock market retardation in Islamic Countries," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 106-127.
    15. Groenewold, Nicolaas & Fraser, Patricia, 1999. "Time-varying estimates of CAPM betas," Mathematics and Computers in Simulation (MATCOM), Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 531-539.
    16. Carhart, Mark M, 1997. "On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 57-82, March.
    17. Peter Pedroni, 1999. "Critical Values for Cointegration Tests in Heterogeneous Panels with Multiple Regressors," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 61(S1), pages 653-670, November.
    18. Roger Perman & David I. Stern, 2003. "Evidence from panel unit root and cointegration tests that the Environmental Kuznets Curve does not exist," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 47(3), pages 325-347, September.
    19. Kao, Chihwa, 1999. "Spurious regression and residual-based tests for cointegration in panel data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 1-44, May.
    20. Eugene F. Fama & Kenneth R. French, 2004. "The Capital Asset Pricing Model: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 18(3), pages 25-46, Summer.
    21. Mr. Andreas Billmeier & Miss Isabella Massa, 2007. "What Drives Stock Market Development in the Middle East and Central Asia—Institutions, Remittances, or Natural Resources?," IMF Working Papers 2007/157, International Monetary Fund.
    22. Fama, Eugene F & French, Kenneth R, 1996. "Multifactor Explanations of Asset Pricing Anomalies," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 51(1), pages 55-84, March.
    23. Mark Dincecco & Gabriel Katz, 2016. "State Capacity and Long‐run Economic Performance," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(590), pages 189-218, February.
    24. repec:bla:obuest:v:61:y:1999:i:0:p:653-70 is not listed on IDEAS
    25. Henry, Peter Blair, 2000. "Do stock market liberalizations cause investment booms?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1-2), pages 301-334.
    26. Kawakatsu, Hiroyuki & Morey, Matthew R., 1999. "Financial liberalization and stock market efficiency: an empirical examination of nine emerging market countries," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 9(3-4), pages 353-371, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stocker, Marshall L., 2016. "The price of freedom: A Fama–French freedom factor," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 1-19.
    2. Muhammad Ali & Chin-Hong Puah, 2018. "Does Bank Size and Funding Risk Effect Banks’ Stability? A Lesson from Pakistan," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 19(5), pages 1166-1186, October.
    3. April M. Knill, 2013. "Does Foreign Portfolio Investment Reach Small Listed Firms?," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 19(2), pages 251-303, March.
    4. Peter Blair Henry, 2007. "Capital Account Liberalization: Theory, Evidence, and Speculation," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 45(4), pages 887-935, December.
    5. Wang, Kuan-Min, 2011. "Health care expenditure and economic growth: Quantile panel-type analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 1536-1549, July.
    6. Álvarez-Ayuso, Inmaculada C. & Kao, Chihwa & Romero-Jordán, Desiderio, 2018. "Long run effect of public grants and tax credits on R&D investment: A non-stationary panel data approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 93-104.
    7. Luintel, Kul B. & Selim, Sheikh & Bajracharya, Pushkar, 2017. "Liberalization, bankers’ motivation and productivity: A simple model with an application," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 102-112.
    8. Kuan-Min Wang, 2013. "The relationship between carbon dioxide emissions and economic growth: quantile panel-type analysis," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 1337-1366, April.
    9. Alves, Paulo & Francisco, Paulo, 2013. "The Impact of Institutional Environment in Firms´ Capital Structure during the Recent Financial Crises," MPRA Paper 51300, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Mauro Costantini & Ricardo M. Sousa, 2020. "Consumption, asset wealth, equity premium, term spread, and flight to quality," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 26(3), pages 778-807, June.
    11. Chakraborty, Indrani, 2010. "Capital structure in an emerging stock market: The case of India," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 295-314, September.
    12. Swamy, Vighneswara & Dharani, M. & Takeda, Fumiko, 2019. "Investor attention and Google Search Volume Index: Evidence from an emerging market using quantile regression analysis," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 1-17.
    13. Francesca Iorio & Stefano Fachin, 2014. "Savings and investments in the OECD: a panel cointegration study with a new bootstrap test," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 46(4), pages 1271-1300, June.
    14. Marius-Răzvan Surugiu & Cristina-Raluca Mazilescu & Camelia Surugiu, 2021. "Analysis of the Tax Compliance in the EU: VECM and SEM," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(17), pages 1-19, September.
    15. Tongurai, Jittima & Vithessonthi, Chaiporn, 2018. "The impact of the banking sector on economic structure and growth," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 193-207.
    16. Munawar-Shah, Syed & Abdul-Majid, Mariani & Hussain-Shah, Syed, 2014. "Assessing Fiscal Sustainability for SAARC and IMT-GT Countries," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 5(2), pages 26-40.
    17. Mathilde Aubry & Jean Bonnet & Patricia Renou-Maissant, 2015. "Entrepreneurship and the business cycle: the “Schumpeter” effect versus the “refugee” effect—a French appraisal based on regional data," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 54(1), pages 23-55, January.
    18. Stefan Lutz, 2012. "Effects of taxation on European multi-nationals’ financing and profits," Economics Discussion Paper Series 1214, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    19. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Nasreen, Samia & Ahmed, Khalid & Hammoudeh, Shawkat, 2017. "Trade openness–carbon emissions nexus: The importance of turning points of trade openness for country panels," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 221-232.
    20. Mitch Kunce, 2022. "The Tenuous Ecological Divorce and Unemployment Link with Suicide: A U.S. Panel Analysis 1968-2020," Journal of Statistical and Econometric Methods, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 11(3), pages 1-2.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:agr:journl:v:xxiii:y:2016:i:1(606):p:213-236. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Mircea Dinu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/agerrea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.