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Sectoral dynamics of safe assets in advanced economies

Madalen Castells-Jauregui, Dmitry Kuvshinov, Bjoern Richter and Victoria Vanasco

Economics Working Papers from Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Abstract: What is the sectoral composition of the market for safety, and does it matter for economic stability? To address these questions, we construct a novel dataset of sectoral safe asset positions in 21 advanced economies since 1980. In almost every country, safe assets have grown considerably relative to GDP, while maintaining a stable “safe-asset share†relative to total financial assets. We find that safe-asset fluctuations are almost exclusively driven by the foreign and financial sectors—who are, respectively, the key marginal buyers and issuers of safe assets—with the real and public sectors playing a muted role. Moreover, increases in safe asset demand by foreigners (raw, and instrumented using emergingmarket FX holdings)—or its counterpart, the supply by financials—are associated with expansions in domestic risky credit and lower medium-term output growth. Our results suggest that advanced economies have been increasingly intermediating safety within and across borders, with potentially adverse effects on their economic stability.

Keywords: safe assets; Capital flows; financial accounts; Business cycles; financial stability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E42 E44 E51 F33 F34 G15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-04, Revised 2025-04
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Working Paper: Sectoral Dynamics of Safe Assets in Advanced Economies (2024) Downloads
Working Paper: Sectoral dynamics of safe assets in advanced economies (2024) Downloads
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