Did the Morocco stock market benefit from the free trade agreement with the US?

Abstract

The US-Morocco Free Trade Agreement (FTA) promised to eliminate trade barriers between the two countries over a period of 25 years. The negotiation and conclusion of the agreement presented challenges for the US negotiating team. Very little trade in services existed between the two countries before the negotiations, which made it difficult to identify interests and obstacles. This paper examines the impact of the FTA on the stock returns in Morocco. The Free Trade Area was officially signed on 15th June 2004. It was implemented on 1st January 2006. The study uses an OLS regression on the Casablanca Stock Exchange returns and the daily data were pulled from DataStream. The data selected are the MASI daily index prices in the Casablanca Stock Exchange. Empirical findings showed that the FTA implementation had a positive impact on the stock returns in Morocco. The results of the study could be used for policymakers, financial professionals and investors.

Keywords:

• Morocco
• event studies
• free trade agreement

JEL:

• F13
• F15
• F36

Note

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Benabderrazik, H. Services Sector. Capitalizing on the Morocco-US Free Trade Agreement: A Road Map for Success, 113.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yvan Nezerwe

Yvan Nezerwe is the Lead Faculty Area Chair of Finance and Economics at the University of Phoenix (San Diego Campus). He has authored journal articles and book chapter in the fields of Corporate Finance, International Finance and Empirical Asset Pricing.

Aristide Karangwa

Aristide Karangwa is a Doctoral Candidate at the Laval University, Department of Management. His areas of interest are Public Financial Management and International Business.