Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T00:16:04.777Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Coming Wave: Where Do Emerging Market Investors Put Their Money?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 March 2019

G. Andrew Karolyi
Affiliation:
David T. Ng*
Affiliation:
Eswar S. Prasad
Affiliation:
Prasad, [email protected], Cornell University Johnson College of Business
*
Ng (corresponding author), [email protected]

Abstract

Using country- and institution-level data, we find that the “coming wave” of emerging- market (EM) investors systematically over- or underweight their equity portfolio holdings in a way that reflects the influences of past capital and trade flows from a foreign country. We interpret this finding as support for van Nieuwerburgh and Veldkamp (2009) information endowment hypothesis. Strong past capital and trade flows create an information advantage that leads EM investors to disproportionately overweight a given foreign market, even relative to developed market investor counterparts. We also pursue predictions of the information endowment hypothesis by constructing novel information-advantage proxies based on relationships among investment firms and the headquarters of their parent companies. These proxies also offer reliable explanatory power for international portfolio allocations.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Michael G. Foster School of Business, University of Washington 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2015 American Finance Association (AFA) meetings. Our AFA discussant, Pab Jotikasthira, provided a number of helpful suggestions. We are grateful to Vidhi Chhaochharia (the referee) and Jennifer Conrad (the editor) for thoughtful comments that have helped improve the analysis and exposition. We also gratefully acknowledge useful comments from Byoung Hwang, Shanjun Li, Lillian Ng, and Tarun Ramadorai as well as seminar and conference participants at Cornell University, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the American Finance Association meetings, the 2017 Santiago Finance Workshop, and the 2017 Corvinus University International Liquidity Conference. Ikchan An and Kai Wu provided excellent research assistance. Laura Ardila, Alan Chen, Tingting Ge, Abhinav Rangarajan, Walter Rose, Kaiwen Wang, and Boyang Zhang also contributed to this project. All remaining errors are of course the responsibility of the authors alone.

References

Ahearne, A. G.; Griever, W. L.; and Warnock, F. E.. “Information Costs and Home Bias: An Analysis of U.S. Holdings of Foreign Equities.” Journal of International Economics, 62 (2004), 313336.10.1016/S0022-1996(03)00015-1Google Scholar
Andrade, S. C., and Chhaochharia, V.. “Information Immobility and Foreign Portfolio Investment.” Review of Financial Studies, 23 (2010), 24292463.Google Scholar
Bailey, W.; Kumar, A.; and Ng, D.. “Foreign Investments of U.S. Individual Investors: Causes and Consequences.” Management Science, 54 (2008), 443459.Google Scholar
Bartram, S.; Griffin, J.; Lim, T.; and Ng, D.. “How Important Are Foreign Ownership Linkages for International Stock Returns?Review of Financial Studies, 28 (2015), 30363072.Google Scholar
Baxter, M.; Jermann, U. J.; and King, R. G.. “Nontraded Goods, Nontraded Factors, and International Non-Diversification.” Journal of International Economics, 44 (1998), 211229.Google Scholar
Bekaert, G., and Harvey, C. R.. “Emerging Equity Market Volatility.” Journal of Financial Economics, 43 (1997), 2977.10.1016/S0304-405X(96)00889-6Google Scholar
Bekaert, G., and Harvey, C. R.. “Research in Emerging Markets Finance: Looking to the Future.” Emerging Markets Review, 3 (2002), 429448.Google Scholar
Bekaert, G., and Harvey, C. R.. “Equity Market Liberalization in Emerging Markets.” Journal of Financial Research, 26 (2003), 275299.Google Scholar
Bekaert, G.; Harvey, C. R.; Lundblad, C.; and Siegel, S.. “Global Growth Opportunities and Market Integration.” Journal of Finance, 62 (2007), 10811137.Google Scholar
Bekaert, G.; Hoyem, K.; Hu, W. Y.; and Ravina, E.. “Who Is Internationally Diversified? Evidence from the 401(K) Plans of 296 Firms.” Journal of Financial Economics, 124 (2017), 86112.10.1016/j.jfineco.2016.12.010Google Scholar
Bohn, H., and Tesar, L. L.. “U.S. Equity Investment in Foreign Markets: Portfolio Rebalancing or Return Chasing?American Economic Review, 86 (1996), 7781.Google Scholar
Brennan, M., and Cao, H.. “Information, Trade, and Derivative Securities.” Review of Financial Studies, 9 (1996), 163208.Google Scholar
Brennan, M., and Cao, H.. “International Portfolio Investment Flows.” Journal of Finance, 52 (1997), 18511880.Google Scholar
Caballero, R. J., and Simsek, A.. “A Model of Fickle Capital Flows and Retrenchment.” Journal of Political Economy, forthcoming (2019).Google Scholar
Chan, K.; Covrig, V.; and Ng, L.. “What Determines the Domestic Bias and Foreign Bias? Evidence from Mutual Fund Equity Allocations Worldwide.” Journal of Finance, 60 (2005), 14951534.Google Scholar
Chitu, L.; Eichengreen, B.; and Mehl, A.. “History, Gravity, and International Finance.” Journal of International Money and Finance, 46 (2014), 104129.Google Scholar
Choe, H.; Kho, B. C.; and Stulz, R.. “Do Domestic Investors Have an Edge? The Trading Experience of Foreign Investors in Korea.” Review of Financial Studies, 18 (2005), 795829.Google Scholar
Choi, N.; Fedenia, M.; Skiba, H.; and Sokolyk, T.. “Portfolio Concentration and Performance of Institutional Investors Worldwide.” Journal of Financial Economics, 123 (2017), 189208.10.1016/j.jfineco.2016.09.007Google Scholar
Cooper, I.; Sercu, P.; and Vanpée, R.. “The Equity Home Bias Puzzle: A Survey.” Foundations and Trends in Finance, 7 (2013), 289416.10.1561/0500000039Google Scholar
Coval, J. D., and Moskowitz, T. J.. “Home Bias at Home: Local Equity Preference in Domestic Portfolios.” Journal of Finance, 54 (1999), 20452073.Google Scholar
Dahlquist, M.; Pinkowitz, L.; Stulz, R.; and Williamson, R.. “Corporate Governance and the Home Bias.” Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 38 (2003), 87110.10.2307/4126765Google Scholar
Dvorak, T.Do Domestic Investors Have an Information Advantage? Evidence from Indonesia.” Journal of Finance, 60 (2005), 817839.Google Scholar
Errunza, V., and Losq, E.. “International Asset Pricing under Mild Segmentation: Theory and Test.” Journal of Finance, 40 (1985), 105124.Google Scholar
Fernández, A.; Klein, M. W.; Rebucci, A.; Schindler, M.; and Uribe, M.. “Capital Control Measures: A New Dataset.” IMF Economic Review, 64 (2016), 548574.Google Scholar
Ferreira, M., and Matos, P.. “The Colors of Investors’ Money: The Role of Institutional Investors around the World.” Journal of Financial Economics, 88 (2008), 499533.Google Scholar
French, K., and Poterba, J.. “Investor Diversification and International Equity Markets.” American Economic Review, 81 (1991), 222226.Google Scholar
Gehrig, T.An Information-Based Explanation of the Domestic Bias in International Equity Investment.” Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 95 (1993), 97109.10.2307/3440137Google Scholar
Gelos, G., and Wei, S. J.. “Transparency and International Portfolio Holdings.” Journal of Finance, 60 (2005), 29873020.Google Scholar
Goldstein, I., and Razin, A.. “An Information-Based Tradeoff between Foreign Direct Investment and Foreign Portfolio Investment.” Journal of International Economics, 70 (2006), 271295.10.1016/j.jinteco.2005.12.002Google Scholar
Grinblatt, M., and Keloharju, M.. “How Distance, Language, and Culture Influence Stockholdings and Trades.” Journal of Finance, 56 (2001), 10531073.Google Scholar
Harvey, C. R.The World Price of Covariance Risk.” Journal of Finance, 46 (1991), 111157.Google Scholar
Hau, H.Location Matters: An Examination of Trading Profits.” Journal of Finance, 56 (2001), 19591983.Google Scholar
Jotikasthira, C.; Lundblad, C.; and Ramadorai, T.. “Asset Fire Sales and Purchases and the International Transmission of Funding Shocks.” Journal of Finance, 67 (2012), 20152050.10.1111/j.1540-6261.2012.01780.xGoogle Scholar
Kaminsky, G.; Lyons, R.; and Schmukler, S.. “Managers, Investors, and Crises: Mutual Fund Strategies in Emerging Markets.” Journal of International Economics, 64 (2004), 113134.Google Scholar
Kang, J. K., and Stulz, R.. “Why Is There a Home Bias? An Analysis of Foreign Portfolio Equity Ownership in Japan.” Journal of Financial Economics, 46 (1997), 328.Google Scholar
Karolyi, G. A.“Cracking the Emerging Markets Enigma.” New York, NY: Oxford University Press (2015).Google Scholar
Karolyi, G. A.; Lee, K. H.; and van Dijk, M.. “Understanding Commonality in Liquidity around the World.” Journal of Financial Economics, 105 (2012), 82112.Google Scholar
Karolyi, G. A., and Stulz, R.. “Are Financial Assets Priced Locally or Globally?” In Handbook of the Economics of Finance, Vol. 1, Constantinides, G., Harris, M., and Stulz, R., eds. Amsterdam, Netherlands: North Holland (2003), 9751020.Google Scholar
Ke, D.; Ng, L.; and Wang, Q. H.. “Home Bias in Foreign Investment Decisions.” Journal of International Business Studies, 41 (2010), 960976.Google Scholar
Lane, P., and Milesi-Ferretti, G.. “International Investment Patterns.” Review of Economics and Statistics, 90 (2008), 538549.Google Scholar
Lewis, K. K.Trying to Explain Home Bias in Equities and Consumption.” Journal of Economic Literature, 37 (1999), 571608.Google Scholar
Mariassunta, G., and Laeven, L.. “The Flight Home Effect: Evidence from the Syndicated Loan Market during Financial Crises.” Journal of Financial Economics, 104 (2012), 2343.Google Scholar
Massa, M., and Simonov, A.. “Hedging, Familiarity and Portfolio Choice.” Review of Financial Studies, 19 (2006), 633685.Google Scholar
Portes, R., and Rey, H.. “The Determinants of Cross-Border Equity Flows.” Journal of International Economics, 65 (2005), 269296.Google Scholar
Prasad, E.Role Reversal in Global Finance.” Proceedings – Economic Policy Symposium – Jackson Hole, (2012), 339390.Google Scholar
Prasad, E., and Rajan, R.. “A Pragmatic Approach to Capital Account Liberalization.” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 22 (2008), 149172.Google Scholar
Razin, A.; Sadka, E.; and Yuen, C.. “A Pecking Order of Capital Flows and International Tax Principles.” Journal of International Economics, 44 (1998), 4568.Google Scholar
Razin, A.; Sadka, E.; and Yuen, C.. “Excessive FDI Flows under Asymmetric Information.” In Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, (September 1999).Google Scholar
Rose, A.Does the WTO Make Trade More Stable?Open Economies Review, 16 (2005), 722.Google Scholar
Rose, A., and Spiegel, M.. “The Olympic Effect.” Economic Journal, 121 (2011), 652677.Google Scholar
Schumacher, D.Home Bias Abroad: Domestic Industries and Foreign Portfolio Choice.” Review of Financial Studies, 31 (2018), 16541706.Google Scholar
Sharma, P.How Does Capital Market Opening Affect Investment Choices? Evidence from China’s Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor Program.” Working Paper, Cornell University (2015).Google Scholar
van Nieuwerburgh, S., and Veldkamp, L.. “Information Immobility and the Home Bias Puzzle.” Journal of Finance, 64 (2009), 11871215.Google Scholar
van Nieuwerburgh, S., and Veldkamp, L.. “Information Acquisition and Under-Diversification.” Review of Economic Studies, 77 (2010), 779805.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Karolyi et al. supplementary material

Karolyi et al. supplementary material

Download Karolyi et al. supplementary material(File)
File 257.5 KB