Cross-country variation in economic preferences and the asset composition of international investment positions

Mika Nieminen and Kamila Kuziemska-Pawlak

Journal of International Money and Finance, 2024, vol. 146, issue C

Abstract: A stylized fact of international capital markets is that advanced countries tend to be long and developing countries short in risky assets (i.e., portfolio equity and foreign direct investment (FDI)). In other words, residents of advanced countries hold a larger stock of portfolio equity abroad than residents of developing countries, and firms in advanced countries have more foreign subsidiaries than firms in developing countries. This paper is the first to utilize a large-scale international survey on economic preferences to propose a behavioral explanation for the heterogeneity in the asset composition of international investment positions. We provide robust empirical evidence that countries with a high time preference (i.e., patience) or a high risk preference (i.e., risk-taking) tend to have a positive net international investment position and a positive net risky position. In addition, we show that countries with a high degree of negative reciprocity (e.g., willingness to punish for unfair action) tend to have a positive net FDI position. Overall, our findings suggest that preferences are important determinants of cross-country variation in net foreign asset positions.

Keywords: Time Preference; Risk Aversion; Negative Reciprocity; International Investment Position; Equity Investment; Foreign Direct Investment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E71 F21 F32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jimfin:v:146:y:2024:i:c:s0261560624001177

DOI: 10.1016/j.jimonfin.2024.103130

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