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What Can Explain the Apparent Lack of International Consumption Risk Sharing?

Karen K. Lewis

Journal of Political Economy 1996 open access

Recent research in international business cycles finds that international consumption comovements do not match the risk-sharing predictions of standard complete markets models. In this paper, I ask whether two different types of explanations can help explain this result: (1) nonseparabilities between tradables and nontradable leisure or goods and (2) the effects of capital market restrictions on consumption risk sharing. I find that risk sharing cannot be resolved by either explanation alone. However, when I allow for both nonseparabilities and certain market restrictions, risk sharing among unrestricted countries cannot be rejected. This evidence suggests that a combination of these two effects may be necessary to explain consumption risk sharing across countries.

DOI
10.1086/262025
Volume
104 (2)
Pages
267-297
Language
en
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