The study looked at whether emerging stock markets and the US stock market have a long-term relationship. Most studies say they don't, but some recent ones say they do. The researchers used a method called recursive cointegration analysis to see if this relationship is stable over time. They found that there was no long-term relationship between these markets for most of the time from 1997. However, during the global emerging market crisis in 1997–1998, they did find evidence of a connection between these markets. This means that major crisis events can change how international stock markets are related to each other.