| dc.description.abstract | International equity flows increased approximately five times from 2001 to 2016.
Therefore, stock market connectedness is increasing over time. It is necessary to assess international
equity investment structure not only in general but also by disaggregating it by the type of investor
as institutional and non-institutional investors have different characteristics and are important
participants in financial markets. This thesis concentrates on international equity investment
connectedness during growth and crisis periods with regard to institutional and non-institutional
networks. Its structure is divided into three parts. The first part is dedicated to the literature review
on differences between institutional and non-institutional investors, determinants of equity flows,
methodologies used to assess stock market connectedness and contagion, its channels, structure of
international equity investment network and its relevant measures. The second part covers the
relevance, aim, logic of the research, steps, chosen evaluation methods, formulation of the research
hypotheses and discussion of research limitations. The third part is devoted to the discussion of the
results obtained analysing international equity investment connectedness with respect to
institutional and non-institutional investors during growth and crisis periods.
It is found that institutional and non-institutional investors have different portfolio
diversification practices. Institutional investors accounting for majority of equity flows form denser,
more clustered, hierarchical and connected network. These differences persist even during crisis
although both network are affected negatively. Even if there are significant differences between
institutional and non-institutional networks during crisis, it does not induce relevant changes in the
structure of both networks. In addition, non-institutional investors are less vulnerable to financial
crisis. However, both types of investors react negatively to increased stock market volatility during
growth period. Besides stock market volatility, institutional investors, especially from central
countries, diversify their portfolios in more countries when exchange rate volatility increases during
growth period and contracts during crisis. Non-institutional investors, instead, do not consider
exchange rate volatility as a significant risk factor. Finally, both types of investors invest more in
countries with higher debt to GDP during growth period but withdraw their investments during
crisis. This factor is the most relevant to non-institutional investors | nb_NO |
