Market development and market efficiency: evidence based on nonlinear panel unit root tests

Abstract

This study tests the weak form market efficiency of 32 European stock markets. Utilizing monthly data from June 2006 to June 2017, six different, newly developed nonlinear panel root tests were applied in three different groups of European markets: Frontier, Emerging and Developed. The results show that there is a meaningful relationship between different levels of economic development and the weak form market efficiency. Considering the nonlinear structure of the stock market indices, use of linear models might lead to wrong conclusions regarding market efficiency. Using several nonlinear panel root tests, the results of this study shed more light on the true data generating process of the stock market indices and more appropriately model market efficiency.