Foreign shocks and international cost of equity destabilization. Evidence from the MENA region

Abstract : This paper investigates whether foreign financial shocks can destabilize the cost of equity in emerging markets. After a theoretical discussion, we develop annual metrics for the international cost of equity, financial integration, spillovers and shift-contagion vulnerability in a sample of 535 Middle East and North African firms from Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and Jordan over the 1998-2011 period. We then analyze the impact of foreign shocks on the international cost of equity, using a set of SGMM and PVAR models. Our results indicate that external shocks can increase the cost of equity in mature emerging markets.