Asian financial crisis: the pre‐ and post‐crisis analysis of Asian equity markets

This study adds to the ongoing analysis of the long‐term impact of Asian financial crisis on the stock markets of eight Asian‐Pacific countries. Using current data to capture postcrisis behavior of returns, multivariate cointegration analysis reveals that a cointegrating relationship exists among the markets that transcend the financial crisis. Both vector error correction (VEC) and Granger causality tests demonstrate the profound effect of financial crisis in Korea on the returns of other countries. Granger causality tests further reveal that the events surrounding the crisis in Thailand and Indonesia largely dictate their own short‐run returns behavior since the advent of the crisis. Compared to earlier period, the post‐crisis era also experiences a closer relationship among the index returns of Hong Kong, Korea, and Singapore and a heightened degree of convergence among the returns of Asian markets.