This paper demonstrates that, after integration, equity portfolios of countries that joined the European Monetary Union have converged at faster rate than those of NON EMU countries. This outcome can be interpreted as a combination of the convergence of inflation rates and the convergence of...

This paper investigates the effects of stock exchange consolidation on foreign portfolio holdings. Sharing a common stock exchange platform enhances cross-border investments, and the consolidation effect is particularly pronounced among member countries that are smaller in size and closer in...

The bilateral foreign portfolio equities among Euro area members have shrunk by 40 percent after 2007. While both the financial crisis and the enlargement are potentially responsible of this abrupt and persistent contraction in financial integration, our work detects a major role for the crisis....

The shift of perspective from a national basis to a Euro area basis, inevitably induced by EMU, has led member countries to a parallel shift from equity home bias to equity Euro bias. We interpret this evidence by means of a standard mean-variance portfolio selection model modified in order to...

This paper demonstrates that, after integration, equity portfolios of countries that joined the European Monetary Union have converged at faster rate than those of NON EMU countries. This outcome can be interpreted as a combination of the convergence of inflation rates and the convergence of...

The exchange rate volatility has witnessed a secular decline after the Bretton Woods collapse. We explore the conjecture that this phenomenon is associated with a generalized decrease in the quest for risk exchange hedging among investors. We find indeed that the negative association between...

This paper investigates the evolution of foreign investment in the immediate aftermath of the implementation of COVID-19 government stringency measures. The average stringency index is not correlated with inward investment positions. However, after removing country fixed-effect and controlling...

While the enlargement of the Euro area to new countries has reduced the average return correlation among member countries, the financial crisis and the sovereign debt crisis have led to an increase in stock return correlation among old members. We find that EMU core countries portfolio...