Finflows: database for bilateral financial investment stocks and flows

Bilateral financial investments are not commonly available from a single source. Our database Finflows aims at centralising the information on bilateral capital financial stocks and financial flows in a single place. It provides estimates of external assets and liabilities flows between around 80 countries including those from European Union, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Russia, China, Brazil, India and the largest offshore countries. The database contains yearly data from 2000 to the last available year (in general with a 20 months delay). Initially developed by (Hobza & Zeugner, 2014) under the scope of the macroeconomic surveillance work, we provide bilateral financial investment links broken by class of investment such foreign direct investment, banking flows or portfolio investment following the Sixth Edition of the IMF's Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual (BPM6, 2009). The specificity of this database lies in the fact that it includes official intermediated links either via European Central Bank’s funding or other official flows which were providing financial assistance to Euro-area countries in distress helping them to refinance their liabilities. We also consider the investment made during the quantitative easing program of the European Central Bank in 2010 and redirect those inter-banking transactions and customer payments that are settled, in real time, within the Euro-zone system when necessary. Another advantage of the database Finflows relies in the resolution of potential mismatch between countries’ declarations.JRC.B.1-Finance and Econom

Measuring Financial Integration in Europe: a price-based approach for equity and bond markets

The economic literature, while recognizing the added value of financial market integration, does not offer a clear cut answer on the best measure(s) of this integration. We compute three possible measures based on the sensitivity of domestic European stock markets to global, US or European shocks. The common rationale is to measure the extent to which domestic stock (bond) market volatility incorporates external shocks, following the idea that in more integrated markets shocks transmit more easily. The first method, based on correlation of stock market returns, offers two measures of integration. Firstly, the proportion of shocks generated in EU and US markets that actually hit EU domestic markets and secondly domestic sensitivity to foreign shocks. The third method, based on common factor portfolios, identifies a set of recurrent common patterns in EU and World stock and bond markets. Domestic returns are then matched against these global factors to see the degree of co-movement. This technical report collects JRC contribution to the European Financial Stability and Integration Review (SWD (insert number), Brussels 25 April 2016)JRC.G.1-Financial and Economic Analysi

JRC.B1 contribution to the SWD on the Movement of Capital and the Freedom of Payments

In the context of the institutional support to DG FISMA, JRC.B1 contributed to the 2018 Commission Staff Working Document on the Movement of Capital and the Freedom of Payments. JRC.B1 contribution included: (i) the analysis of home bias (tendency to invest in domestic financial assets); (ii) the analysis of diversification of cross-border investments and (iii) the estimation of the country specific degree of risk sharing for EU28 (risk sharing is the possibility to use cross-border capital markets to smooth domestic shock). JRC.B1 contribution appears in sections 2.5 and 2.6, and in Appendix III and IV.JRC.B.1-Finance and Econom

Measures and drivers of financial integration in Europe

The report contains a review of the literature on price based measures of financial markets integration and computes three indicators of financial integration in the EU28 equity and bond markets. Following the idea that in more integrated markets shocks transmit more easily, the common rationale for the three indicators is that of measuring the extent to which domestic stock (bond) market volatility incorporates external shocks. We use a multivariate GARCH and a common factor portfolios models to derive the indicators providing also a battery of robustness checks to test the validity of our results and the assumptions of the models. Finally we investigate the drivers of integration in the equity market by estimating a panel regression relating integration, as measured by common factor portfolios, with many macro and institutional variables.JRC.B.1-Finance and Econom

Foreign investment in the EU The FOWN dataset

This report describes the process to construct the foreign ownership dataset called FOWN. It includes three pieces of data: i) public and private firms located in Europe controlled by non-European investors, ii) Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) of firms located in Europe done by non-European investors, and iii) greenfield investments aiming at setting-up an installation in Europe by non-European investors. This document details the raw data used, the assumptions necessary to construct the dataset and limitations of FOWN.JRC.B.1-Finance and Econom

China: Challenges and Prospects from an Industrial and Innovation Powerhouse

China is rapidly becoming a major industrial competitor in high tech and growth sectors. Its economic success and related industrial policies have received a high degree of attention, especially in light of its capacity to challenge the leading position of advanced economies in several fields. China aims, through the 'Made in China 2025' strategy, to become a world leader in key industrial sectors. In these sectors, it strives to strengthen its domestic innovation capacity, to reduce its reliance on foreign technologies while moving up in global value chains. This report analyses China's approach to attain a dominant position in international markets through a combination of industrial, R&I, trade and foreign direct investment policies. It offers an assessment of China's current position compared to the EU and US innovation systems across a range of dimensions. It concludes that China has become a major industrial competitor in several rapidly expanding high tech sectors, which may well result in attaining China's goal of becoming an innovation leader in specific areas. As a response, the EU will need to boost its industrial and R&I performance and develop a trade policy that can ensure a level playing field for EU companies in China and for Chinese companies in the EU.JRC.B.7-Knowledge for Finance, Innovation and Growt

Banks under X-rays: business model choices and trading

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to do an empirical analysis assessing whether banks highly involved into trading activities show specific business model choices. Key factors in the analysis are a proper measure for trading activities and a consistent classification of banks in terms of business choices. Design/methodology/approach – We investigate three measures for trading activities proposed by regulators in the context of bank structural reform in Europe. Through robust statistics we identify the key trading players and classify banks into a limited number of business model clusters, relying on a set of balance sheet and income statement indicators. Findings – Using a sample of 100 European banks in 2007-2012, results show that the measures identify similar, but not identical, sets of banks highly involved into trading. The measure proposed by the European Commission selects fewer banks and is more consistent over time. The business model analysis identifies six rather stable clusters, from small-medium retail-focused banks to very large investment groups. The measures coherently identify as key trading players the largest investment groups and select very few retailed focused banks. Differences among measures arise for very large retail-diversified and medium/large wholesale banks. Originality/value – These results could feed the debate on which measures for trading regulators could consider depending on the target of the reform they would implement. For instance we show that the measure proposed by the European Commission selects less well capitalized retail-diversified banks compared to the others.JRC.G.1-Financial and Economic Analysi

FinFlows: a database for bilateral financial investment stocks and flows

Finflows contains yearly bilateral financial investment positions between OECD, EU, and offshore countries (stocks and flows) from 2000 to 2018. Financial investments are decomposed into Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Portfolio and Other Investments.JRC.B.1-Finance and Econom

FOWN: a database on foreign ownership

FOWN contains yearly firm-level data on firms active in EU28 but owned by a company/family/individual located outside the European Union. These data are used to monitor nonEU investments in EU28JRC.B.1-Finance and Econom