Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/153119 
Year of Publication: 
2006
Series/Report no.: 
ECB Working Paper No. 685
Publisher: 
European Central Bank (ECB), Frankfurt a. M.
Abstract: 
This paper focuses on the role of real exchange rate volatility as a driver of portfolio home bias, and in particular as an explanation for differences in home bias across financial assets. We present a Markowitz-type portfolio selection model in which real exchange rate volatility induces a bias towards domestic financial assets as well as a stronger home bias for assets with low local currency return volatility. We find empirical support in favour of this hypothesis for a broad set of industrialised and emerging market countries. Not only is real exchange rate volatility an important factor behind bilateral portfolio home bias, but we find that a reduction of monthly real exchange rate volatility from its sample mean to zero reduces bond home bias by up to 60 percentage points, while it reduces equity home bias by only 20 percentage points.
Subjects: 
capital flows
Exchange rate volatility
global financial markets
home bias
portfolio investment
risk
JEL: 
F30
F31
G11
G15
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
655.67 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.