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A rational explanation for home country bias

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  • Hasan, Iftekhar
  • Simaan, Yusif

Abstract

While modern portfolio theory predicts that investors should diversify across international markets, corporate equity is essentially held by domestic investors. French and Poterba (1991) suggest that in order for this bias to be justified, investors must hold optimistic expectations about their domestic markets and pessimistic expectations about their foreign markets. Tesar and Werner (1995) find existing explanations to the home equity bias unsatisfactory and conclude that the issue poses a challenge for portfolio theory. We develop a model that incorporates both the foregone gains from diversification and the informational constraints of international investing, and shows that home equity bias is consistent with rational mean-variance portfolio choice. Specifically, we prove that the nature of estimation risk in international markets can be responsible for this phenomenon. We show that when the cross-market variability in the estimation errors of international markets' means far exceeds the cross-market variability in the means themselves, domestic dedication dominates international diversification. An examination of eleven international markets' returns over the last twenty-five years, from the perspective of German, Japanese and U.S investors provides evidence consistent with this explanation.

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Bibliographic Info

Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Journal of International Money and Finance.

Volume (Year): 19 (2000)
Issue (Month): 3 (June)
Pages: 331-361

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Handle: RePEc:eee:jimfin:v:19:y:2000:i:3:p:331-361

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Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/30443

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References

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  1. Jorion, Philippe, 1985. "International Portfolio Diversification with Estimation Risk," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 58(3), pages 259-78, July.
  2. Harry Markowitz, 1952. "Portfolio Selection," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 7(1), pages 77-91, 03.
  3. Michael Mussa & Morris Goldstein, 1994. "The integration of world capital markets," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, pages 245-330.
  4. West, Kenneth D. & Edison, Hali J. & Cho, Dongchul, 1993. "A utility-based comparison of some models of exchange rate volatility," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(1-2), pages 23-45, August.
  5. Harvey, Campbell R, 1991. " The World Price of Covariance Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(1), pages 111-57, March.
  6. Cutler, David M & Poterba, James M & Summers, Lawrence H, 1991. "Speculative Dynamics," Review of Economic Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(3), pages 529-46, May.
  7. Levy, Haim & Sarnat, Marshall, 1970. "International Diversification of Investment Portfolios," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 60(4), pages 668-75, September.
  8. Dumas, Bernard & Solnik, Bruno, 1995. " The World Price of Foreign Exchange Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(2), pages 445-79, June.
  9. Kenneth R. French & James M. Poterba, 1991. "Investor Diversification and International Equity Markets," NBER Working Papers 3609, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  10. Tesar, Linda L. & Werner, Ingrid M., 1995. "Home bias and high turnover," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 467-492, August.
  11. John L. G. Board & Charles M. S. Sutcliffe, 1994. "Estimation Methods in Portfolio Selection and the Effectiveness of Short Sales Restrictions: UK Evidence," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(4), pages 516-534, April.
  12. Bekaert, Geert & Hodrick, Robert J, 1992. " Characterizing Predictable Components in Excess Returns on Equity and Foreign Exchange Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(2), pages 467-509, June.
  13. Cooper, Ian & Kaplanis, Evi, 1994. "Home Bias in Equity Portfolios, Inflation Hedging, and International Capital Market Equilibrium," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 7(1), pages 45-60.
  14. George J. Stigler, 1961. "The Economics of Information," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 69, pages 213.
  15. Ferson, Wayne E & Harvey, Campbell R, 1993. "The Risk and Predictability of International Equity Returns," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 6(3), pages 527-66.
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Blog mentions

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  1. Postino, Transener y la racionalidad acotada!
    by Elemaco in Economista Serial Crónico on 2007-02-16 21:11:00
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Cited by:
  1. Berrill, Jenny & Kearney, Colm, 2010. "Firm-level internationalisation and the home bias puzzle," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 62(4), pages 235-256, July.
  2. Hasan, Iftekhar & Malkamäki, Markku, 2000. "Are Expansions Cost Effective for Stock Exchanges? A Global Perspective," Research Discussion Papers 20/2000, Bank of Finland.
  3. Charles Engel & Akito Matsumoto, 2006. "Portfolio Choice in a Monetary Open-Economy DSGE Model," NBER Working Papers 12214, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  4. Shujing Li & Hamid Faruqee & Isabel K. Yan, 2004. "The Determinants of International Portfolio Holdings and Home Bias," IMF Working Papers 04/34, International Monetary Fund.
  5. Campbell, Rachel A. & Kräussl, Roman, 2007. "Revisiting the home bias puzzle: downside equity risk," Open Access publications from Maastricht University urn:nbn:nl:ui:27-19569, Maastricht University.
  6. Barron, John M. & Ni, Jinlan, 2008. "Endogenous asymmetric information and international equity home bias: The effects of portfolio size and information costs," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 617-635, June.
  7. Gau, Yin-Feng & Hua, Mingshu & Wu, Wen-Lin, 2010. "International asset allocation for incompletely-informed investors," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 422-447, November.
  8. Piti Disyatat & Gaston Gelos, 2001. "The Asset Allocation of Emerging Market Mutual Funds," IMF Working Papers 01/111, International Monetary Fund.
  9. Liliane Karlinger, 2002. "The Impact of Common Currencies on Financial Markets: A Literature Review and Evidence from the Euro Area," Working Papers 02-35, Bank of Canada.
  10. Michael R. King & Dan Segal, 2004. "International Cross-Listing and the Bonding Hypothesis," Working Papers 04-17, Bank of Canada.
  11. repec:pra:mprapa:26525 is not listed on IDEAS

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