The Equity Home Bias Puzzle

The Equity Home Bias Puzzle
Author: Ian Cooper
Publisher:
Total Pages: 133
Release: 2013
Genre: International finance
ISBN: 9781601987631

Home bias - the empirical phenomenon that investors assign anomalously high weights to their own domestic assets - has puzzled academics for decades: financial theory predicts that an internationally well diversified portfolio of stocks and short-term bonds can reduce risk significantly without affecting expected return. Although the globalization of international equity markets has increased international investments, equity portfolios remain severely home biased today, and no single explanation seems to solve the puzzle completely. In this paper, we first provide a thorough description of the equity home bias phenomenon by defining, discussing, and applying the competing measures and presenting some estimates of the costs of under-diversification. Second, we evaluate the explanations for the equity home bias proposed in the literature such as information asymmetries, behavioral aspects, barriers to foreign investment, and governance issues, and conclude that each explanation on its own falls short, suggesting that the equity home bias probably reflects a combination of factors. Lastly, we review the implications of international under-diversification for portfolio formation and the cost of capital of companies.

Determinants of Home Bias

Determinants of Home Bias
Author: Moritz Maier
Publisher:
Total Pages: 39
Release: 2019
Genre:
ISBN:

This paper analyzes determinants of home bias in equity funds based on monthly holdings data using panel and quantile regressions. We investigate 699 equity funds, domiciled in fifteen European countries, that broadly invested in European stocks from January 2003 to December 2016. More than ninety percent of our sample funds show, on average, a home bias. In addition, the home bias across funds is quite stable over time. Analyzing the determinants of this home bias, our empirical results from panel regressions indicate that macroeconomic development, stock market development and fund-specific characteristics have, on average, a significant influence on the home bias of individual funds. Applying quantile regressions, we find the effects of several determinants, such as real growth in the gross domestic product, past excess return of the domestic stock market or number of stocks held by funds to be clearly related to the funds' level of home bias. Further analyses of subportfolios of funds show that informational advantages do not seem to be a reason for the observed home bias.

The Determinants of Cross-border Equity Flows

The Determinants of Cross-border Equity Flows
Author: Richard Portes
Publisher:
Total Pages: 60
Release: 2000
Genre: Capital movements
ISBN:

We apply a new approach to a new panel data set on bilateral gross cross-border equity flows between 14 countries, 1989-96. The model integrates elements of the finance literature on portfolio composition and the international macroeconomics and asset trade literature. Gross asset flows depend on market size in both source and destination country as well as trading costs, in which both information and the transaction technology play a role. Distance proxies some information costs, and other variables explicitly represent information transmission, an information asymmetry between domestic and foreign investors, and the efficiency of transactions. The remarkably good results have strong implications for theories of asset trade. We find that the geography of information is the main determinant of the pattern of international transactions, while there is little support in our data for diversification and return-chasing motives for transactions."--Authors.

Communities in Action

Communities in Action
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 583
Release: 2017-04-27
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309452961

In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

The Homeboy Bias

The Homeboy Bias
Author: Grant Richard McQueen
Publisher:
Total Pages: 54
Release: 2007
Genre:
ISBN:

We document a new investor bias we call the homeboy bias. Whereas the home bias is a preference for domestic or local assets, the homeboy bias is a preference for domestic fund managers. Using the choices of mutual funds for retirement accounts of the Swedish population, and after controlling for past returns, fees, and fund styles, we find that funds offered by Swedish institutions received over 21 times more money than similar funds offered by foreign institutions. In cross-fund regressions, we show that the homeboy bias is distinct from the home bias and is not driven by economic explanations based on information asymmetries or foreign exchange risk. In cross-individual regressions, we show that the homeboy bias is strongest among financially-unsophisticated investors and that explanations for the homeboy bias may be based on behavioral preferences related to familiarity and nationalism. Thus, the homeboy bias is empirically distinct from the home bias but may have the same behavioral roots.

Coordinated Portfolio investment Survey

Coordinated Portfolio investment Survey
Author: International Monetary Fund
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 180
Release: 1997-01-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1455216569

This paper presents a coordinated portfolio investment survey guide provided to assist national compilers in the conduct of the Coordinated Portfolio Investment Survey, conducted under the auspices of the IMF with reference to the year-end 1997. The guide covers a variety of conceptual issues that a country must address when conducting a survey. It also covers the practical issues associated with preparing for a national survey. These include setting a timetable, taking account of the legal and confidentiality issues raised, developing a mailing list, and maintaining quality control checks.

Equity Home Bias in International Finance

Equity Home Bias in International Finance
Author: Kavous Ardalan
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 243
Release: 2019-05-17
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1000001431

This book provides a comprehensive and critical analysis of research outcomes on the equity home bias puzzle – that people overinvest in domestic stocks relative to the theoretically optimal investment portfolio. It introduces place attachment – the bonding that occurs between individuals and their meaningful environments – as a new explanation for equity home bias, and presents a philosophically multi-paradigmatic view of place attachment. For the first time, a comprehensive and up-to-date review of the extant literature is provided, demonstrating that place attachment is a contributing factor to 22 different topics in which variations of home bias are present. The author also analyses the social-psychological underpinnings of place attachment, and considers the effect of multi-culturalism on the future of equity home bias. The book’s unique approach discusses the issues in conceptual terms rather than through data and statistical methods. This multi- and inter-disciplinary book is an invaluable resource for graduate students and researchers interested in economics, finance, philosophy, and/or methodology, introducing them to a new line of research.

Home Bias Revisited

Home Bias Revisited
Author: Geert Bekaert
Publisher:
Total Pages: 62
Release: 2011
Genre:
ISBN:

We examine a large number of potential home bias determinants, including some novel ones, using extensive panel data. We distinguish between the actual home bias (over investment in domestic securities) and foreign investment bias, for which we propose a new measure. For foreign investment bias, we also demonstrate how quot;size biasesquot; significantly affect the results. We find that the old empirical results based on the U.S. data alone do not generalize to the panel data set; information and familiarity variables and proxies for the degree of capital market openness play an important role in explaining both home and foreign investment biases.