The observed patterns of equity portfolio allocation around the world are at odds with predictions from a capital asset pricing model (CAPM). What has come to be called the “home-bias” phenomenon is that investors tend to hold a disproportionately large share of their equity portfolio in home country stocks as compared with predictions of the CAPM. This paper provides an explanation of the home...

In this paper we study dollarization as a commitment device that the Central Bank could use to avoid getting involved in an undesirable banking-sector bailout. We show how a political process could induce an equilibrium outcome that differs from the one that a benevolent Central Bank would want to implement. Dollarization then could be used to restore the economy to the benevolent outcome. In s...

The development of high frequency data bases allows for empirical investigations of a wide range of issues in the financial markets. In this paper, we set out some of the many important issues connected with the use, analysis, and application of high-frequency data sets. These include the effects of market structure on the availability and interpretation of the data, methodological issues such ...

We analyse the impact of news on five financial markets in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland using a newly constructed data set in a GARCH framework. Macroeconomic shocks (on GDP, inflation rate, current account and trade balance) are constructed as deviations from expected values. EMU-related political and fiscal news is captured as news dummies. Macroeconomic shocks significantly affect ...

Capital controls can induce large and persistent deviations from the Law of One Price for cross-listed stocks in international capital markets. A considerable literature has explored firm-specific factors which influence ADR pricing when LOP is violated. In this paper, we examine the interlinkages between Indian ADR premiums and macroeconomic time-series. We construct an ADR premium index, wher...

Pelagidis and Mastroyiannis [Pelagidis, T., & Mastroyiannis, T. (2003). The saving–investment correlation in Greece, 1960–1997: Implications for capital mobility. Journal of Policy Modeling] using the cointegration methodology proposed by Jansen and Schulze [Jansen, W.J., & Schulze, G.G. (1993). Theory-based measurement for the saving–investment correlation with an application to Norway. Discus...

The effects of the introduction of the euro were expected not only on the real convergence of economies but also on stock markets. This paper compares the dynamics and synchronization of stock markets regimes in European markets before and after the launch of the euro. The results show that countries of the euro zone have different dynamics concerning the switching between bull and bear markets...

We demonstrate that simply by using the ethnic makeup surrounding a firm’s location, we can predict, on average, which trade links are valuable for firms. Using customs and port authority data on the international shipments of all U.S. publicly-traded firms, we show that firms are significantly more likely to trade with countries that have a large resident population near their firm headquarter...

Estimating Cross-Industry Cross-Country Models Using Benchmark Industry Characteristics* International industry data permits testing whether the industry-specific impact of cross-country differences in institutions or policies is consistent with economic theory. Empirical implementation requires specifying the industry characteristics that determine impact strength. Most of the literature has b...

This study presents the empirical results for the relationship between the use of hedging techniques and the characteristics of UK multinational enterprises (MNEs). All the firms in the sample hedge foreign exchange (FX) exposure. The results indicate that UK firms focus on a very narrow set of hedging techniques. They make much greater use of derivatives than internal hedging techniques. The d...