This study examines the price discovery patterns in the three BRICS countries’ stock index futures markets that were launched after 2000 – China, India, and Russia. We detect two structural breaks in these three futures price series and their underlying spot price series, and use them to form subsamples. Employing a Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) and the Hasbrouck (1995) test, we find the price discovery function of stock index futures markets generally improves over time in China and India, but declines in Russia. A closer examination not only confirms the findings of Yang et al. (2012) and Hou and Li (2013) regarding price discovery in China’s stock index markets, but also reveals the inconsistency of futures’ leading role in the price discovery process. Further, we find some evidence of day-of-the-week effects in earlier part of the sample in China, but not in India or Russia. And our GARCH model results show bidirectional volatility spillover between futures and spot in China and India, but only unidirectional in Russia.

A decline in the relative price of imported goods compared to that of domestically produced goods may have different effects on domestic consumption. Such effects may not be accurately detected and measured in a classical permanent-income model without considering consumption habit formation as pointed out by Nishiyama (2005). To resolve this problem, this paper employs an extended permanent-income model which encompasses consumption habit formation. Both cointegration analysis and GMM are used to estimate the (modified) intratemporal elasticities of substitution (AES) between imports and domestic consumption and the parameters of habit formation as well as the (modified) intertemporal elasticities of substitution (IES). We find that import and domestic consumptions are complements in China, but substitutes in Japan and Korea. Different per capita incomes and consumer behaviors between China and the other two countries are two possible reasons for different relationships between import and domestic consumptions. The research findings have important implications on policies such as exchange rate adjustments in China. （2011中国金融国际年会博士论文征文）