The widening of cross-currency basis: When increased FX swap demand meets limits of arbitrage

Nadav Ben Zeev and Daniel Nathan

Journal of International Economics, 2024, vol. 152, issue C

Abstract: This paper examines customer demand-side factors that affect deviation from covered interest rate parity (CIP) with respect to the dollar (i.e., cross-currency basis), particularly when arbitrageurs are constrained. Using novel detailed daily transaction-level data on the universe of Israeli institutional investors (IIs), we employ a granular instrumental variable (GIV) estimation to investigate how IIs’ FX swap demand affects CIP deviation. Our findings demonstrate that a one standard deviation shock to IIs’ FX swap demand when capital is abundant has no effect on IIs’ basis. However, when capital is scarce, the demand shock produces a significant reduction of 12 basis points in IIs’ basis. Our results showcase how limits of arbitrage, together with demand shocks from a large customer base, can drive CIP deviations.

Keywords: LOA-dependent FX swap demand channel; Cross-currency basis; Limits of arbitrage; Granular instrumental variable; Bartik instrument; Open FX swap position; Institutional investors (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E44 F3 G15 G23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022199624001119
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:inecon:v:152:y:2024:i:c:s0022199624001119

DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2024.103984

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of International Economics is currently edited by Martin Uribe and Costas Arkolakis

More articles in Journal of International Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().