Synthetic measures of the European capital markets development

The development of computer sciences and telecommunication together with legislation changes caused the globalization of capital markets and the increase of their role in the economy. To measure the level of the development of capital markets it is necessary to take into account several aspects that lead to providing multidimensional analysis. Therefore multivariate statistical methodology can be used for such a purpose. The aim of the paper is a comparison of the development of the capital markets, represented by the stock exchanges affiliated with the Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE). The development of selected equity markets is evaluated applying taxonomic measures calculated on the basis of FESE data concerning nineteen European stock exchanges in the years 2002-2011. Variables used for the synthetic indicators construction describe both the characteristics of the capital markets and the financial efficiency of the stock exchanges.