The current account as a dynamic portfolio choice problem

The current account can be understood as the outcome of investment decisions made by domestic and foreign investors. These decisions can be decomposed into a portfolio rebalancing and a portfolio growth component. This paper provides empirical evidence of the importance of portfolio rebalancing for the dynamics of the current account. The authors evaluate the predictions of a partial-equilibrium model of the current account with dynamic portfolio choices, in which portfolio rebalancing is driven by changes in investment opportunities. Using data for the United States and Japan, the authors find evidence supporting innovations in investment opportunities as an important mechanism to explain international capital flows.Debt Markets,Emerging Markets,Economic Theory&Research,Currencies and Exchange Rates,Investment and Investment Climate

Very high interest rates and the cousin risks: Brazil during the Real Plan

We review the arguments in the finance and open macroeconomics literature relevant for the Central Bank to set the level of the interest rate in an open economy. The two relevant risks are the currency and country risks. The country risk (Brazil Risk) is measured with different financials instruments and the (unobservable) currency risk is estimated via the Kalman Filter. We show that besides the currency risk, which is also relevant in developed economies the country risk is of utmost importance to determine the domestic interest rates. Both risks share a few common causes, which is why we call them the cousin risks. Thus, when and if those common causes are confronted, the fall of domestic interest rates may be substantial, because both currency and Brazil risks will fall simultaneously. Preliminary results identify some components of the Brazil risk, e.g., the fiscal deficits, and the domestic and international financial markets conditions. The convertibility risk, defined as risk associated with possibility of not being able to convert BRLs into foreign currency, showed up as an important cause of the Brazil risk during the international financial crises periods, but is no longer relevant. Nowadays, Brazil risk decreased significantly, but the same did not happen with the currency risk. Therefore, it seems that the main factor precluding the fall in domestic interest rates may be associated with the uncertainty of the future behavior of the balance payments, especially the trade account. In view of this hypothesis, we might speculate that assuring vigorous export growth, without resorting to devaluation, is fundamental to achieve lower real interest rates, compatible with sustained economic growth.

Unexploited gains from international diversification : patterns of portfolio holdings around the world

This paper studies how portfolios with a global investment scope are allocated internationally using a unique micro dataset on U.S. equity mutual funds. While mutual funds have great flexibility to invest globally, they invest in a surprisingly limited number of stocks, around 100. The number of holdings in stocks and countries from a given region declines as the investment scope of funds broadens. This restrictive investment practice has costs. A mean-variance strategy shows unexploited gains from further international diversification. Mutual funds investing globally could achieve better risk-adjusted returns by broadening their asset allocation, including stocks held by more specialized funds within the same mutual fund family (company). This investment pattern is not explained by lack of information or instruments, transaction costs, or a better ability of global funds to minimize negative outcomes. Instead, industry practices related to organizational factors seem to play an important role.Mutual Funds,Debt Markets,Emerging Markets,Rural Development Knowledge&Information Systems,Access to Finance

What explains stock markets'vulnerability to the 2007-2008 crisis ?

This paper examines the determinants of stock markets'vulnerability to the 2007-2008 crisis. Given that the United States (US) was the crisis epicenter, the authors analyze the factors driving the co-movement between US returns and stock returns in 83 countries. The analysis distinguishes between the period before and after the collapse of Lehman Brothers. The findings indicate that the main channel of transmission was financial. There is also evidence of a"wake-up call"or"demonstration effect"in the first stage of the crisis, because countries with vulnerable banking and corporate sectors exhibited higher co-movement with the US market. However, despite a collapse in trade across countries, the analysis does not find support for this channel of transmission.Debt Markets,Mutual Funds,Markets and Market Access,Economic Theory&Research,Emerging Markets

Gross capital flows: Dynamics and crises

This paper analyzes the behavior of international capital flows by foreign and domestic agents, dubbed gross capital flows, over the business cycle and during financial crises. We show that gross capital flows are very large and volatile, especially relative to net capital flows. When foreigners invest in a country, domestic agents invest abroad, and vice versa. Gross capital flows are also pro-cyclical. During expansions, foreigners invest more domestically and domestic agents invest more abroad. During crises, total gross flows collapse and there is a retrenchment in both inflows by foreigners and outflows by domestic agents. These patterns hold for different types of capital flows and crises. This evidence sheds light on the sources of fluctuations driving capital flows and helps discriminate among existing theories. Our findings seem consistent with crises affecting domestic and foreign agents asymmetrically, as would be the case under the presence of sovereign risk or asymmetric information.Gross capital flows, net capital flows, domestic investors, foreign investors, crises.

Gross capital flows : dynamics and crises

This paper analyzes the joint behavior of international capital flows by foreign and domestic agents -- gross capital flows -- over the business cycle and during financial crises. The authors show that gross capital flows are very large and volatile, especially relative to net capital flows. When foreigners invest in a country, domestic agents tend to invest abroad, and vice versa. Gross capital flows are also pro-cyclical, with foreigners investing more in the country and domestic agents investing more abroad during expansions. During crises, especially during severe ones, there is retrenchment, that is, a reduction in both capital inflows by foreigners and capital outflows by domestic agents. This evidence sheds light on the nature of shocks driving capital flows and helps discriminate among existing theories. The findings seem consistent with shocks that affect foreign and domestic agents asymmetrically, such as sovereign risk and asymmetric information.Emerging Markets,Macroeconomic Management,Economic Theory&Research,Debt Markets,Capital Flows

mixtools: An R Package for Analyzing Mixture Models

The mixtools package for R provides a set of functions for analyzing a variety of finite mixture models. These functions include both traditional methods, such as EM algorithms for univariate and multivariate normal mixtures, and newer methods that reflect some recent research in finite mixture models. In the latter category, mixtools provides algorithms for estimating parameters in a wide range of different mixture-of-regression contexts, in multinomial mixtures such as those arising from discretizing continuous multivariate data, in nonparametric situations where the multivariate component densities are completely unspecified, and in semiparametric situations such as a univariate location mixture of symmetric but otherwise unspecified densities. Many of the algorithms of the mixtools package are EM algorithms or are based on EM-like ideas, so this article includes an overview of EM algorithms for finite mixture models.

Unexploited Gains from International Diversification: Patterns of Portfolio Holdings Around the World

This paper studies how portfolios with a global investment scope are actually allocated internationally using a unique micro dataset on U.S. equity mutual funds. While mutual funds have great flexibility to invest globally, they invest in a surprisingly limited number of stocks, around 100. The number of holdings in stocks and countries from a given region declines as the investment scope of funds broadens. This restrictive investment practice has costs. A mean-variance strategy shows unexploited gains from further international diversification. Mutual funds investing globally could achieve better risk-adjusted returns by broadening their asset allocation, including stocks held by more specialized funds within the same mutual fund family (company). This investment pattern is not explained by lack of information or instruments, transaction costs, or a better ability of global funds to minimize negative outcomes. Instead, industry practices related to organizational factors seem to play an important role.

Financing Firms in Hibernation during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has halted economic activity worldwide, hurting firms and pushing them toward bankruptcy. This paper provides a unified framework to organize the policy debate related to firm financing during the downturn, centered along four main points. First, the economic crisis triggered by the spread of the virus is radically different from past crises, with important consequences for optimal policy responses. Second, to avoid inefficient bankruptcies and long-term detrimental effects, it is important to preserve firms’ relationships with key stakeholders, like workers, suppliers, customers, and creditors. Third, firms can benefit from “hibernating,” using the minimum bare cash necessary to withstand the pandemic, while using credit to remain alive until the crisis subdues. Fourth, the existing legal and regulatory infrastructure is ill-equipped to deal with an exogenous systemic shock such as this pandemic. Financial sector policies can help increase the provision of credit, while posing difficult choices and trade-offs