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Asymmetric information and the lack of international portfolio diversification

Author

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  • Juan Carlos Hatchondo
Abstract
There is pervasive evidence that individuals invest primarily in domestic assets and thus hold poorly diversified portfolios. Empirical studies suggest that informational asymmetries may play a role in explaining the bias towards domestic assets. In contrast, theoretical studies based on asymmetric information fail to produce significant quantitative effects. The present paper develops a theoretical model in which the presence of informational asymmetries explains a significant fraction of the home equity bias observed in the data. The main departure from previous theoretical work is the assumption that local investors outperform foreign investors in identifying the correct ranking of local investment opportunities instead of possessing superior information about the aggregate performance of the domestic stock market. The other key assumption is based on the evidence that short-selling is a costly activity. This paper studies the case of a two-country world. There are two assets in each country. Only local investors receive informative signals about local assets. Thus, domestic agents have an incentive to concentrate their investments in the local asset favored by the signal realization, and reduce the position held in the other local asset. When the signal is sufficiently informative and short-sales are costly, local investors decide not to finance purchases of the perceived \"good\" local asset by selling short the perceived \"bad\" local asset. Instead they invest a lower fraction of their portfolio in foreign securities. This liberates resources that can be allocated in the local asset perceived to pay higher expected returns.

Suggested Citation

  • Juan Carlos Hatchondo, 2005. "Asymmetric information and the lack of international portfolio diversification," Working Paper 05-07, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedrwp:05-07
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Jonathan Heathcote & Fabrizio Perri, 2013. "The International Diversification Puzzle Is Not as Bad as You Think," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 121(6), pages 1108-1159.
    2. Cai, Peilin & Gan, Quan & Kim, Suk-Joong, 2018. "Do sovereign credit ratings matter for foreign direct investments?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 50-64.
    3. Akbar, Ume Salma & Mubashir Ali, Mubashir Ali & Shah, Zulifqar Ali, 2014. "Home Equity Bias," Sukkur IBA Journal of Management and Business, Sukkur IBA University, vol. 1(1), pages 40-56, October.
    4. Cai, Peilin & Kim, Suk-Joong & Wu, Eliza, 2019. "Foreign direct investments from emerging markets: The push-pull effects of sovereign credit ratings," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 110-125.

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