Abstract
This study aims to examine the potential causal relationship between the VIX and the indicator stock exchange index returns of G20 (9 developed and 10 developing) countries. Nineteen countries of the sample are G20 countries with available data. In this respect, the frequency domain Granger causality test of Breitung and Candelon (2006) is employed for the daily data between March 2011 and December 2017. The results obtained from the study indicate that there is no causal relationship between the VIX and the returns of the NASDAQ 100 index in developed countries. Similarly, no causal relationship is detected which runs from the VIX to the BIST100, BOVESPA, MERVAL, S&P/BMV IPC and TADAWUL stock index returns in developing countries. As a result, the causal relationship is more tend to be found in developed countries in comparison to developing countries.