The Determinants of International Investment and Attention Allocation: Using Internet Search Query Data

Jordi Mondria (), Thomas Wu and Yi Zhang

Working Papers from University of Toronto, Department of Economics

Abstract: The challenge of evaluating asymmetric information theories relies on assessing the pieces of information investors decide to process. This paper overcomes such challenge exploring a unique dataset containing the "search/click-through" behavior of internet search engine users. We analyze the relationship between attention allocation and international investment decisions by combining U.S. data on portfolio holdings of foreign securities with the attention allocated by America Online customers in search queries towards these countries. We find evidence that: (i) agents tend to search more information about countries where they hold more assets, and (ii) agents tend to invest more in countries where they process more information.

Keywords: Foreign Asset Holdings; Attention Allocation; Internet Search Query. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D82 F30 G11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2008-08-08
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Journal Article: The determinants of international investment and attention allocation: Using internet search query data (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tor:tecipa:tecipa-326

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