This study examines the dynamic linkages between oil price shocks
and stock market returns in 22 emerging economies. Vector
autoregression (VAR) analysis is carried on daily data for the period,
January 1, 1998 to April 31, 2004. This study utilized the generalized
approach to forecast error variance decomposition and impulse
response analysis in favor of the more traditional orthogonalized
approach. Inconsistent with the pervious empirical studies indeveloped economies, the results from the variance decomposition
analysis provided very weak evidence that there is a relationship
between the crude oil price shocks and stock market returns in the
emerging economies. Furthermore, the results from impulse analysis
reveal that innovations in the oil market are slowly transmitted in the
emerging stock markets. These results suggest that stock markets in
the emerging economies are inefficient in transmission of new
information of the oil market. These results may also indicate that the
importance of oil price for the aggregate economy, especially inemerging economies, is greatly over-estimated. These results may
also suggest that the stock market returns in the emerging economies
do not rationally signal changes in the crude oil prices.