The Roles of Stock Exchanges in Emerging Markets: The Case of Four Southern African markets.

This article revisits the discussion on the functions that the emerging stock markets are intended to perform when they are established. In order to fulfill such functions, certain levels of "market micro-structure" characteristics should be obtained. Such micro-structure features include liquidity, market size and enabling environment. Some factors obtaining in a market's environment like credit rationing and protectionist tariffs tend to curtail the pricing and consequently allocational efficiencies on the emerging markets. The paper calls on the authorities and policy makers in countries where emerging markets exist to create or improve operational conditions to facilitate overall market efficiency. African Journal of Finance and Management Vol.7(1) 1998:1-1