Globalization, Gluts, Innovation or Irrationality What Explains the Easy Financing of the U.S. Current Account Deficit?

This paper examines the roles of U.S. financial innovation, financial globalization, and the savings glut hypothesis in explaining the rise in U.S. external debt, first in a portfolio balance model, and then empirically. Perhaps surprisingly, financial deepening and falling home bias in industrializ...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Balakrishnan, Ravi
Other Authors: Bayoumi, Tamim, Tulin, Volodymyr
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Washington, D.C. International Monetary Fund 2007
Series:IMF Working Papers
Subjects:
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Collection: International Monetary Fund - Collection details see MPG.ReNa
Description
Summary:This paper examines the roles of U.S. financial innovation, financial globalization, and the savings glut hypothesis in explaining the rise in U.S. external debt, first in a portfolio balance model, and then empirically. Perhaps surprisingly, financial deepening and falling home bias in industrialized countries explain a large share of external financing. The savings glut hypothesis (including difficult-to-track petrodollar recycling) and U.S. financial innovation are also important, in part as a cause of declining home bias in industrialized countries. The latter underscores the importance of not looking at these factors in isolation, but rather as a constellation of forces that can be self-reinforcing
Physical Description:39 pages
ISBN:9781451867244