International Currencies and Capital Allocation

Matteo Maggiori, Brent Neiman and Jesse Schreger

No 12973, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: We establish currency as an important factor shaping global portfolios. Using a new security-level dataset, we demonstrate that investor holdings are biased toward their own currencies to such an extent that countries typically hold most of the foreign debt securities denominated in their currency. While large firms issue in foreign currency and borrow from foreigners, most firms issue only in local currency and do not directly access foreign capital. These patterns hold broadly across countries except for the United States, as foreign investors hold significant shares of US dollar bonds. The share of dollar-denominated cross-border holdings surged after 2008.

Keywords: Capital flows; Exorbitant privilege; Home bias; Reserve currencies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E42 E44 F3 F55 G11 G15 G23 G28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec, nep-ifn, nep-knm, nep-mac, nep-mon and nep-opm
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (41)

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Related works:
Journal Article: International Currencies and Capital Allocation (2020)
Working Paper: International Currencies and Capital Allocation (2018)
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