Home Bias Abroad: Domestic Industries and Foreign Portfolio Choice

94 Pages Posted: 12 Apr 2014 Last revised: 6 Oct 2017

Date Written: August 11, 2017

Abstract

In their foreign portfolio allocations, international mutual funds overweight industries that are comparatively large in their domestic stock market. Aggregate excess foreign industry allocations are sizeable, on average amounting to over 100% for the largest domestic industries. While this foreign industry bias partly reflects familiarity-based motives, a large body of evidence on investment and performance patterns is on the whole remarkably consistent with a specialized learning motive contributing to the bias. This suggests that differences in industry structures across domestic stock markets proxy for international information asymmetries.

Keywords: International Mutual Funds, Portfolio Choice, International Markets.

JEL Classification: G15, G23

Suggested Citation

Schumacher, David, Home Bias Abroad: Domestic Industries and Foreign Portfolio Choice (August 11, 2017). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2423525 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2423525

David Schumacher (Contact Author)

McGill University ( email )

1001 Sherbrooke St. W
Montreal, Quebec H3A 1G5
Canada
5143984778 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.davidschumacher.info

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