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Journal of Financial Economics Vol. 120 No. 2 2016

Asset allocation and monetary policy: Evidence from the eurozone

Harald Hau1,2,3; Sandy Lai4

1 Centre for Economic Policy Research · 2 University of Geneva · 3 Swiss Finance Institute · 4 University of Hong Kong

Abstract

The eurozone has a single short-term nominal interest rate, but monetary policy conditions measured by real short-term interest rates varied substantially across countries in the period 2003–2010. We use this cross-country variation in the (local) tightness of monetary policy to examine its influence on equity and money market flows. In line with a powerful risk-shifting channel, we find that fund investors in countries with decreased real interest rates shift their portfolio investment out of the money market and into the riskier equity market, causing significant equity price inflation in countries where investment home bias is the strongest.

DOI
10.1016/j.jfineco.2016.01.014
Volume
120
Issue
2
Pages
309-329
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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