Tail Dependence and Risk Spillover from the US to GCC Banking Sectors

This study investigates the structure of the tail dependence between the United States (US) and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) banking sectors for the period February 2010 to July 2017. Conditional value at risk and conditional diversification benefits are calculated. The GCC banking sectors show lower tail dependence with the US banking sector. This is confirmed by the fact that GCC banking sectors receive higher downside risk spillover from the US banking system during downside market movements compared to upside risk spillover effects. Interestingly, an equally weighted portfolio of US and GCC banking stocks can provide relatively higher diversification benefits. These findings have implications for portfolio diversification, asset allocation and hedging strategies.