The 1990s have witnessed an increase in private capital inflows to sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. Such capital flows are viewed as volatile and hence a threat to macroeconomic stability. A sudden reversal of capital inflows was one factor underlying the East Asian crisis of 1997. This...

Models of “contagion” rely on market imperfections to explain why adverse shocks in one asset market might be associated with asset sales in many unrelated markets. This paper demonstrates that contagion can be explained with basic portfolio theory without recourse to market imperfections....