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International diversification at home and abroad

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Author Info
Fang Cai
Francis E. Warnock
Abstract

We analyze foreigners' and domestic institutional investors' holdings of U.S. equities and find common preferences for large firms and firms that are diversified internationally. The domestic preference for internationally diversified firms implies that investors might obtain substantial international diversification by investing at home. Using an international factor model, we show that exposure to foreign equity markets is indeed greater for domestic firms that are more diversified internationally, suggesting that at least some of the home-grown foreign exposure translates into international diversification benefits. After accounting for home-grown foreign exposure, the share of `foreign' equities in U.S. portfolios doubles to 24 percent, greatly reducing the observed home bias.

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Paper provided by Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.) in its series International Finance Discussion Papers with number 793.

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Date of creation: 2004
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Keywords: Investments; Foreign;

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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  4. Kenneth R. French & James M. Poterba, 1991. "Investor Diversification and International Equity Markets," NBER Working Papers 3609, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. 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. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  20. Gehrig, Thomas, 1993. " An Information Based Explanation of the Domestic Bias in International Equity Investment," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 95(1), pages 97-109.
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  23. La Porta, Rafael & Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert, 2000. "Investor protection and corporate governance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1-2), pages 3-27. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  24. Kang, Jun-Koo & Stulz, Rene M., 1997. "Why is there a home bias? An analysis of foreign portfolio equity ownership in Japan," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 3-28, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  25. Levy, Haim & Sarnat, Marshall, 1970. "International Diversification of Investment Portfolios," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 60(4), pages 668-75, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Sorensen, Bent E & Wu, Yi-Tsung & Yosha, Oved & Zhu, Yu, 2005. "Home Bias and International Risk Sharing: Twin Puzzles Separated at Birth," CEPR Discussion Papers 5113, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. John Ammer & Sara B. Holland & David C. Smith & Francis E. Warnock, 2004. "Look at me now: the role of cross-listing in attracting U.S. investors," International Finance Discussion Papers 815, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
  3. Michael Fidora & Marcel Fratzscher & Christian Thimann, 2006. "Home bias in global bond and equity markets - the role of real exchange rate volatility," Working Paper Series 685, European Central Bank. [Downloadable!]
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