We show that recent methodological advances in econometric theory raise questions about the results obtained by Lane and Milesi-Ferretti (LMF) in relation to the determinants of international investment patterns (International Investment Patterns, The Review of Economics and Statistics 2008; 90(3):...

We show, by a simple difference-in-difference methodology that, contrary to prior research, robustly raising the deductibility limit associated to pension fund holdings in Italy did not succeed in boosting households’ contributions to this form of savings. Some other empirical finding also...

By using data from all available waves of the IMF Coordinated Portfolio In- vestment Surveys, we explore the dynamics of the determinants of cross portfolio investments. The main aim of our analysis, however, is to understand whether a diversification motive can also be found, among the various...

On BHPS data we measure various indices of social capital at the individual and household level, and use them as explanatory variables in standard consumption insurance tests. We find that two out of three aspects of social capital positively impact on consumption smoothing, by reducing the...

Many contributions in the recent literature have investigated over the relationship between growth and its volatility, without getting a clear and unambiguous answer. Besides reassessing the well-known effect of output volatility on growth as benchmark analysis, this study aims at looking into...

The main research question of this paper is whether or not the risk of family disruption has an impact on the consumption/saving decisions of households. Although little empirical work exists in this area, often presenting indirect evidence, the theory is divided over the effect of family risk...

The main research question of this empirical work is whether or not globalization, in its various forms, has had an impact upon international risk sharing. The empirical literature so far has only investigated on one aspect of globalization: economic and financial integration. By decomposing...