Volatility and return spillovers in Canadian and U.S. industry ETFs

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are now an important source of information dissemination in Canadian and U.S. equity markets, and we provide new evidence regarding price discovery and volatility spillovers in these securities. We find that price discovery flows consistently from the U.S. to Canada for these securities, while volatility spillovers are largely bi-directional. Information is impounded more rapidly into returns through trading in U.S securities, and the combination of negative U.S. return spillovers and asymmetric volatility creates bi-directional volatility feedback effects. The results are relevant to market participants and Canadian market regulators since Canadian circuit-breakers are tied to U.S. market conditions.