Abstract. The accelerated development of emerging stock markets in recent decades, obstructed by the economic crisis of 2008 that has not lost its pulse in the European perimeter, led to reviving interests regarding the role of stock markets within economies. The aim of this paper is to identify the nature of the linkage between stock market and economic growth in Romania. Using the VEC model, we demonstrated that before the financial liberalisation and global crisis, the domestic environment led to stock market development, but after, the evolution of this component of the nominal economy was predominantly due to the international context.

Keywords: emerging stock market, domestic economic development, international economy, VECM, economic crisis.