Market efficiency in Asian and Australasian stock markets: a fresh look at the evidence

Market efficiency is an important feature of successful financial markets. The aim of this paper is to analyze the available evidence on the efficient market hypothesis (EMH). Meta-regression analysis is applied to 1,560 estimates of the Variance Ratio test of the efficiency of Asian and Australasian stock markets. We test if there is evidence of violation of the EMH and we also explain the heterogeneity in the reported test results. Our meta-regression analysis specifically accommodates the possibility of publication selection in favor of accepting the null hypothesis of market efficiency. We find that Asian stock markets are, on average, not informationally efficient. However, market efficiency has improved over time and market capitalization and economic freedom influences stock market efficiency; more developed and less regulated stock markets are more efficient.