Portfolio flows and household portfolios

In this paper, we show that cross-border portfolio flows around the peak of the European Crisis induced households to rebalance their portfolios toward housing. Estimating difference-in-differences regressions around Draghi's ``Whatever It Takes" speech in July 2012 estimated with household data from the ECB's Household Finance and Consumption Survey, we find that portfolio inflows induce households with larger ex-ante bond and equity shares to rebalance more strongly toward housing. The effect is not driven by higher pre-treatment access to credit or higher credit growth during the treatment period and is stronger for wealthier and less risk-averse households.