Morningstar's John Rekenthaler covers the 20-year trailing performance numbers for MSCI Indexes and examined what separated top-performing countries from losing ones.

Natural resources and the euro were important factors, as Norway, Canada and Australia were helped by healthy commodities prices and European countries that stayed out of the euro out gained eurozone countries. Yet the biggest factor was cultural, Rekenthaler writes.

Rekethaler writes that corruption may play a key role in those countries' performance, as 16 countries' performances appear to correlate with their corruption ranks. There were a few outliers, however, as the U.S. had higher performance given its corruption rank and Japan had the worst stock returns, yet had a below-average corruption score, Rekenthaler writes.

Rekenthaler says that international stock investors tend to favor economic growth rather than clean governments as the BRIC countries haven't always been known for their ethical or straightforward approach, but those investors may wish to reconsider after checking out this chart.

To read more, click here.  

Edited by: Casey Quinlan


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