The Impact of Social Knowledge on the Efficiency of the Financial Markets: A Case Study on the Erbil Stock Exchange

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the factors that can have an impact on the efficiency of financial markets, and the Erbil Stock Exchange was chosen as a case study. The researchers sought to evaluate the level of social knowledge by concentrating on certain dimensions which have a direct influence on the public’s perspective regarding financial markets – namely religion, culture and economic awareness – and the number of people participating in the sale and purchase of stocks and shares. This study tested the hypotheses by applying some statistical analyses, and the outputs are detailed in the tables, figures and factors. According to the results, the efficiency of the stock market is affected by monthly income, culture and religion, and public experience. It was also found that there is no difference in perspective between men and women regarding investing in the stock market. This is supported by the hypothesis test results, which indicated that there is no correlation between gender and economic awareness, number of participators, culture, and religion. The results of the factor analyses show that there is a significant correlation between religion, culture, economic awareness and the number of people participating and social knowledge, and that these factors significantly affect the efficiency of the stock market.