We reject the first hypothesis, and find some evidence consistent with the
second and third hypotheses stated above. Our formal statistical analysis shows
that economies with more correlated fundamentals do have stock markets with
more synchronous returns, but our best efforts to control for fundamentals
correlation and volatility do not render per capita GDP insignificant. Adding
a variable that measures government respect for private property, however, does
render per capita GDP insignificant in explaining stock price synchronicity.
Finally, among developed economies, more protection of public shareholders'
property rights against corporate insiders is correlated with more firm-specific
information being capitalized into stock prices.