Exorbitant Privilege and Exorbitant Duty∗

Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas

University of California at Berkeley

H ́el`ene Rey

London Business School

Nicolas Govillot

Ecole des Mines

Preliminary and Incomplete. Please Do Not Cite.

This Version: May 22, 2010

Abstract

We update and improve the Gourinchas and Rey (2007a) dataset of the historical

evolution of US external assets and liabilities at market value since 1952 to include

the recent crisis period. We find strong evidence of a sizeable excess return of gross

assets over gross liabilities. The center country of the International Monetary System

enjoys an “exorbitant privilege” that significantly weakens its external constraint. In

exchange for this “exorbitant privilege” we document that the US provides insurance

to the rest of the world, especially in times of global stress. This “exorbitant duty”

is the other side of the coin. During the 2007-2009 global financial crisis, payments

from the US to the rest of the world amounted to 19 percent of US GDP. We present

a stylized model that accounts for these facts.

∗Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas acknowledges financial support from the International Growth Center grant

RA-2009-11-002. Contact email: pog@berkeley.edu.
1 Introduction

The existence of a lasting “exorbitant privilege” -a higher return on US external assets

than on its external liabilities- is an important and intriguing stylized fact in international

economics. As shown in Gourinchas and Rey (2007a), this excess return can be divided into

a composition effect resulting from an asymmetric structure of the external balance sheet

of the United States -assets are riskier and less liquid than liabilities- and a return effect

-an excess return within class of assets-. One direct consequence of the exorbitant privilege

is to relax the external constraint of the U.S., allowing it to run larger trade and current

account deficits without worsening its external position commensurately. Understanding the

source of this exorbitant privilege is an important step in understanding the nature of the

adjustment process for the U.S. and whether this is a sustainable phenomenon or not. From

that perspective, the financial crisis provides a new and important empirical observation:

the dramatic worsening of the net foreign asset position of the United States between the

third quarter of 2007 and the first quarter of 2009. The precipitous fall of a magnitude

amounting to 19% of GDP is both due to flows (with the US selling assets abroad more than

foreigners selling US assets) and to a dramatic adjustment in valuations (the price of US

holdins abroad contracting more than the rest of the world holdings in the US). This last

development indicates a reversal of the usual “exorbitant” transfer from the rest of the world

to the US: during a crisis, wealth flows from the US to the rest of the world. We call this

phenomenon the “exorbitant duty” of the US: in times of global stress, the US effectively

provides insurance to the rest of the world.

We argue that the “exorbitant duty” and the “exorbitant privilege” are two sides of the

same coin. They reflect the structure of payments associated with an implicit insurance

contract between the U.S. and the rest of the world. In his paper, (a) we provide the

most up-to-date detailed evidence on the magnitude and composition of external returns

in normal times. This evidence uses the latest available data as well as some recently

unearthed historical surveys of cross border holdings. It also incorporates the developments

1
in the literature since Gourinchas and Rey (2007a). Our new results are largely in line with

our earlier work; (b) we document the “exorbitant duty” i.e. the economic magnitude of

the payments from the US to the rest of the world in the recent crisis. We show that this

insurance mechanism was also there –although to a lower extent– during earlier episodes

of global stress; (c) we provide a simple calibrated model that allows us to make sense of

the structure of external returns. In the model, the US explicitly provides insurance to the

ROW since it is assumed to have a greater risk tolerance. This captures a host of potential

mechanisms by which the US economy may be able to better handle economic and financial

risks. The model is able to reproduce the following features: (i) the US exhibits exorbitant

privilege in normal times and exorbitant duty in times of global stress; (ii) the US runs trade

deficits on average; (iii) the US portfolio is leveraged, hence there is both a composition and

a return effect. However, the return effect requires that foreign government bonds experience

larger default risk when global crisis occurs. The model does not account for everything we

see in the data, however. In particular, while the model can generate the large collapse in

net foreign assets of the US in crisis times, it cannot account for the large net foreign asset

debtor position in good times. One possible interpretation, left to future work, is that under

incomplete markets, foreign countries face excessive incentives to accumulate reserves due to

a pecuniary externality (as in Caballero and Cowan (2008), or Lorenzoni (2008), or Aiyagari

(1995)). This externality may push the center country into excessive debt and subject the

international financial system to a Triffin (1960) type problem, where a decreased confidence

in the centre country may lead to a run.

2 External balance sheet structure and returns

Financial globalization started in the 1980s and substantially accelerated in the 1990s, as

evidenced by the massive surge in gross external assets and liabilities as a fraction of GDP.

A recent burgeoning literature has extracted interesting stylized facts from cross country

data on international investment positions (see Lane and Milesi-Ferretti (2001) for an early

2
contribution). Studying the composition of the balance sheet of countries is increasingly

important to understand the dynamics of countries’ external adjustment. The traditional

trade channel of adjustment, whereby current account deficits have to be made up for by

future export surpluses has to be supplemented by a valuation channel, which takes into account capital gains and losses on the foreign asset position due to fluctuations in asset prices

(Gourinchas and Rey (2007b)). An asymmetric structure of assets and liabilities, for example when assets and liabilities are in different currencies, leads to a very different adjustment

process than a symmetric balance sheet. US external assets are mostly denominated in foreign currencies while US external liabilities are in dollars (Tille (2004), Lane and Shambaugh

(2007)). It follows that a dollar depreciation gives rise to wealth transfers from the rest of

the world to the United States. Similarly, earning excess returns on average on its external

asset position allows a country to run larger current account deficits than it would otherwise,

as the deterioration of the net international asset positions is muted by the capital gains.

Gourinchas and Rey (2007a) showed that the US earns an important average excess return on its net foreign asset position on the period 1952-2004. This finding fits well with

the observation that in recent years, recent crisis excluded, the net international investment

position of the United States has deteriorated at a speed significantly smaller than the current account deficit data would have suggested. Similar findings are reported in Obstfeld

Rogoff (2005) or Meissner and Taylor (2006) on 1983-2003, Lane and Milesi-Ferretti (2005)

on 1980-2004. In contrast, Curcuru et al. (2008) use a different methodology to compute

returns and report no exorbitant privilege on the period 1994-2005. Forbes (2010) however

reports 6.9% excess returns per year on 2002-2006 using Curcuru et al. (2008)’s methodology. More recently, Habib (2010) confirms the existence of excess returns of about 3% for

the US on the period 1981-2008 and points out the singularity of the US in its ability to

earn excess returns for long periods of time. None of the other countries of his broad panel

has a similar “privilege”. Moreover Habib (2010)’s study points out that the bulk of the

return differential comes from capital gains and not from differences in yields. Consistent

with Gourinchas and Rey (2007a), HabibHabib (2010) also finds that a sizeable share of the

3
excess returns does not come from a composition effect -external assets are less liquid and

more risky than external liabilities and therefore earn a premium- but rather from a within

asset class return differential. US bonds held by foreigners, for example, give a lower total

real return than foreign bonds owned by US residents.

2.1 Data and methodology

This paper takes a fresh look at the historical evolution of the United States external position

over the postwar period, including the recent crisis, by carefully constructing the US gross

asset and liability positions since 1952 from underlying data and applying appropriate valuations to each components. The data construction methodology is described in Appendix A.

Relative to our former work (Gourinchas and Rey (2007a)) we improve our existing dataset

along several dimensions. We have disaggregated our data into government and corporate

bonds on the bonds liability side and improved our measure of income flows for each type

of assets. On the asset side we now also keep track of the dynamics of gold reserves. Importantly, we set initial net foreign asset positions using detailed Treasury surveys realized

during the second world war: The 1943 Treasury Census of American-owned assets in foreign

countries and the 1941 Treasury Census of foreign-owned assets in the US. Those surveys

are detailed and reliable as they were of strategic importance for the United States while

fighting against the Axis and for reparation payments after the war.1 The post-war estimates

of the US net foreign asset position are based on these surveys on positions and measures of

international capital flows. Since capital controls were in place during the Bretton Woods

period, the resulting estimates are quite precise as well. For the latter part of the sample

1As explained in the foreword of the 1941 Survey: “On April 1940, when Germany invaded Denmark and

Norway, the President of the United States issued an Executive order freezing the dollar assets of those two

countries and their nationals. [...]. Tens of thousands of banks, corporations and individuals in this country

were required to file, on form TFR-300, reports giving detailed information with respect to foreign owned

assets and the owners [...] Never before was as complete information available for analyses of the holdings

of foreigners in this country.” The information contained in these surveys was of great strategic value to

the United States. The 1941 Survey reports (p5) that “investigations to uncover enemy agents and enemy

assets, especially after our entry into the war, were greatly facilitated by the TFR-300 information.” The

1943 Survey on American owned assets abroad “had its principal use in the war settlements and the postwar

period generally, although it provided much greatly needed information during the latter part of the military

phases of the war.”

4
we reconstruct the time series of the international investment position of the United States

at market value and quarterly frequency from 1952:1 until 2010, benchmarking our series on

the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) official annual IIP positions. The data construction is described in details in the appendix. A key issue is the reconciliation of flow and

position data often coming from different sources. The discrepancy between the two, labeled

‘other changes’ by the BEA, has been a residual item of significant size in recent years. A

correct measure of the the true returns on the net foreign asset position requires that this

residual item be allocated between unrecorded capital gains, unrecorded financial flows, or

mismeasured initial net asset position. Appendix A discusses formally how different measures of returns can be constructed under these different assumptions. Importantly, while

the different assumptions have some impact on our calculated returns, they have no effect

on our overall results: over long periods of times, the U.S. has experienced a high return on

its net foreign assets, the ‘exorbitant privilege.’ Different results obtained in the literature

seem to be mostly the result of a focus on relatively short time spans.

We provide a reconciliation spreadsheet of the external accounts of the US where all

the accounting links between flows and valuations are very explicit. The spreadsheet is an

interactive and transparent tool, allowing users to make the assumption they wish regarding

measurement errors in the data. We believe this spreadsheet should be of major help to all

researchers using US external accounts data and interested in their consistency.2

2.2 The “exorbitant privilege”

The estimated excess returns are very robust to the assumptions one could make on methodology or errors in the data. We find that the excess total return of US gross external assets

over its gross external liabilities is worth about 2% per year between 1952 and 2009. During

the Bretton Wood era, the very special role of the United States at the centre of the international monetary system was often lamented in French quarters. Besides finance minister

Giscard d’Estaing, who coined the term “exorbitant privilege” in 1965, economic advisor

2The spreasheet “dynamic reallocation.xls” can be found at [TBA].

5
Jacques Rueff around the same time described the Dollar as a “boomerang currency”: the

sizable external deficits of the US were not matched by commensurate gold losses, as creditor

countries reinvested the dollar gained in their exports payments into the US economy.3 We

adopt a somewhat narrower definition of the ‘exorbitant privilege’. In this paper, it refers

to the excess return of US external assets on US external liabilities.

As a first benchmark, we allocate all mismeasured items in the evolution of the international investment position to mismeasured capital gains. As discussed in the appendix, this

is the only assumption that leaves both measured positions and the recorded net exports

unchanged, a reasonable assumption. Our results on external results are reported in Table

1, panel (a). We note that for the whole period 1952:1-2009:4 the excess returns of external

assets r

a over liabilities rl are very sizable at 2.69%. Since exchange rate movements are an

important component of capital gains and losses (see Gourinchas and Rey (2007b)), we isolated the Bretton Woods and the Post Bretton Woods period. Interestingly, the magnitude

of the “exorbitant privilege” has increased over time from about 1.3% between 1952:1-1972:4

to 3.47% during 1973:1-2009:4. One interpretation of that increased return is that the volatility of the leveraged US portfolio has increased during the fluctuating exchange rate period

and that this increased volatility has gone hand in hand with an increase in excess returns.

Indeed the volatility of external liabilities -almost exclusively in Dollars- is almost unchanged

over the whole sample while the volatility of external assets, very low during the Bretton

Woods era increased substantially after the collapse of the fixed exchange rate system.

An alternative assumption would be to allocate all the mismeasurment to mismeasured

3“The process works this way. When the U.S. has an unfavorable balance with another country (let us

take as an example France), it settles up in dollars. The Frenchmen who receive these dollars sell them to

the central bank, the Banque de France, taking their own national money, francs, in exchange. The Banque

de France, in effect, creates these francs against the dollars. But then it turns around and invests the dollars

back into the U.S. Thus the very same dollars expand the credit system of France, while still underpinning

the credit system in the U.S. The country with a key currency is thus in the deceptively euphoric position

of never having to pay off its international debts. The money it pays to foreign creditors comes right back

home, like a boomerang The functioning of the international monetary system is thus reduced to a childish

game in which, after each round, the winners return their marbles to the losers The discovery of that secret

[namely, that no adjustment takes place] has a profound impact on the psychology of nations This is the

marvelous secret of the deficit without tears, which somehow gives some people the (false) impression that

they can give without taking, lend without borrowing, and purchase without paying. This situation is the

result of a collective error of historic proportions.”in Rueff (1971).

6
flows, as in Curcuru et al. (2008). Following this path has a number of drawbacks. First, this

would imply that US exports are growing more and more mismeasured over time. Second, it

would also imply a mismeasurement of net exports on the order of 15% of exports on average

in the recent period. This is not impossible, but sharply at odds with the Bureau of Census’

perception that the introduction of ARES, a new electronic system to record exports, at the

end of the 1990s and its generalization after 2001 (98% coverage in 2002) has led to much

more accurate exports data. A 15% measurement error year-on-year would largely dwarf

the upper bound of the Census of 10% for export mismeasurement referring to data before

1998 (in fact reconciliation studies produce numbers which are more in the 3 to 7% range for

data before 1998). It is even more unlikely that mismeasurement could be as high as 15%

of exports after 2000. We also note that given the small shares of services in exports, it is

not very plausible that even a serious mismeasurement in services would be large enough to

account for the discrepancy.4 Nevertheless, one could decide to attribute all mismeasurement

to mismeasured financial flows (see Table 1 panel (b)). Because the residual items reported

by the BEA tend to be negative on the liability side (reducing external liabilities) and positive

on the asset side (incresaing external assets), excluding them from valuation will lower excess

retunrs. In fact, Curcuru et al. (2008) argue that, once this adjustment is made, the excess

return largely disappears for the US over 1994-2005. We find instead evidence of a sizable

excess return of about 1.62% over the post Bretton Woods period. We conclude that the

evidence on exorbitant privilege is largely robust to their correction.

Going back to the BEA’s Survey of Current Business narrative account for the change

in net foreign asset position, there is convincing evidence that debt inflows may have been

overstated, as redemptions may not always have been accounted for properly.5In specification (c), we adopt a hybrid approach, allocating all the mismeasurement on on debt

assets and liabilities to mismeasured financial flows. We however allocate the remaining

mismeasurements for portfolio equity, direct investment and other assets to valuation terms.

This lowers slightly the excess return, from 2.69 percent to 2.44 percent per annum over the

4Also, imports are traditionally well mesured because of custom duties.

5See Lane and Milesi-Ferretti (2009) for a thorough discussion.

7
entire period, and from 3.47 percent to 3.11 percent for the post Bretton Wood era. We

conclude that under a set of reasonable alternatives, the excess return of US external assets

on external liabilities is large, between 1.6 and 3.5 percent per annum.

Further, we provide on our website a companion spreadsheet allowing a dynamic reallocation of mismeasured terms that vary by year and asset class. Our own experience is that it

is difficult not to find an excess return on the net foreign asset position of the United States,

whichever assumption one may use on the reallocation of the mismeasured items.

The country at the centre of the international monetary system acts as an international

liquidity provider. As such its external balance sheet is particularly remarkable, featuring

large gross liquid liabilities and investment in mostly long term risky assets. This is the

traditional maturity transformation activity of a bank (Graph 1 and 2). Figure 1-2 report

the breakdown of gross assets and liabilities into portfolio equity and debt, direct investment

and other assets. Further, 1 breaks down US gross debt liabilities between corporate and

government debt, while figure 2 breaks down other assets into gold and non-gold assets. The

figure highlights how the composition of US assets and liabilities has changed over time,

and documents the importance of liquid safe liabilities (government debt) and risky assets

(portfolio equity and direct investment).

This composition effect explain part of the excess returns that the US earns on its external

position. But, as already pointed out in Gourinchas and Rey (2007a) an important part of

the excess returns comes from within-asset class returns differentials, which we document in

table 3. We denote by ˆr

o

the differential of returns within the “other assets” category, ˆr

d

the differential of returns within the “debt” category, and similarly for direct investment (ˆr

di

) and equity (ˆr

e

). With the mixed allocation of ‘other changes’ (panel c), we see that the

excess return has been particularly large in the equity and direct investment categories over

the floating rate period (last row), with excess returns of nearly 5 percent per year on direct

investment and 4.2 percent for equities. However, we still find a sizeable excess return even

for the debt category, of 2.45 percent per year, although significantly reduced from the 4.7

percent in panel (a) obtained when allocating ‘other changes’ to valuation effects. Since, as

8
argued above, a good case can be made that a sizeable fraction of the misallocation between

flows and stocks for the debt asset category can be attributed to mismeasured financial

flows, we view this estimate as a conservative measure of the excess return on US debt

assets. Finally, we find little or negative excess returns on the ‘other assets’ category that

includes bank loans and trade credit.

2.3 The “exorbitant duty”

Since at least the summer of 2007, financial markets have been in turmoil. The subprime crisis, followed by the near default or default of several investment banks, insurance companies

and nation states has driven volatility to levels not seen in the last two decades. Inspection

of the data on the net foreign asset position of the United States during the period of the

recent crisis is quite revealing.

We observe a dramatic collapse of most international asset positions as a fraction of GDP.

Figure 3 shows the steep declines of equity assets and liability positions as a percentage of

GDP. The value of equity assets has declined by 19% of GDP between 2007:4 and 2009:1. A

very similar picture emerges for FDI positions, and to a lesser extent for bank loans. US debt

liabilities however increased massively as a proportion of GDP since at least 1999. There

was a very small decrease in 2008:3 when Lehman Brothers collapsed and all markets froze,

followed by a sharp increase. Importantly, the valuation of US Treasury Bills and bonds did

not collapse during the crisis, like those of all the other assets. Graph 3 conveys clearly the

contrast of safe external liabilities versus risky external assets, which is at the heart of our

interpretation of the role of the United States in the centre of the international monetary

system. Coupled with the appreciation of the dollar, the relative stability in the value of US

bonds has led to a massive wealth transfer of the US towards the rest of the world. Graph 4

shows that between 2007:3 and 2009:1, the net foreign asset position of the United States has

dropped by 19% of GDP. Such a precipitous fall of about 3% of GDP per quarter is unseen

before in our data: The US has provided insurance to the world when the global crisis hit.

We argue that such an insurance provision in very bad states of the world is the “exorbitant

9
duty” of the centre country. If the US provides insurance against global shocks, it follows

that the rest of the world should pay an insurance premium to the US in normal times.

Figure 5, shows liquid liabilities as a share of total liabilities and risky assets as a share of

total assets. It provides a very striking illustration of the role of the US in providing safe

assets to the word at times where the risky assets value tumble.

We therefore sketch an unconventional view of the role of the centre country in the

international monetary system and give an alternative explanation to the determinants of

the global currency role, compared to the literature. Traditional views rely on liquidity

effects and the medium of exchange function of money, such as Krugman (1979), Swoboda,

Rey (2001), Matsuyama et al (2001), or more recently Devereux and Shi (2009), who ally

medium of exchange and store of value in their model. In the traditional view of international

currencies, size and /or trade links are important insofar as they render a currency more

liquid. Stability of the currency is also a prerequisite to foster its international use. It is also

often pointed out that the synergies between medium of exchange roles, store of value and

unit of account explain why the Dollar is at the same time reserve currency, vehicle currency

and pegging currency. From an empirical point of view, Eichengreen () and Frankel and

Chinn () have provided an analysis of composition of world reserves. With a share of about

70% of observed total reserves, the US dollar has an uncontested lead. Political scientists

have focused on military might and geopolitical power of the United States as underlying

determinants of the international currency. In contrast, we focus on the insurance properties

of the international currency.

2.3.1 Empirical evidence on the ‘exorbitant duty’

The Great Recession provided us with striking evidence of a massive wealth transfer from

the US to the rest of the world during the crisis. Can we find systematic evidence of these

transfers in other episodes of market turmoil? We relate empirically the net foreign asset

position of the United States, and valuation gains and losses on this position to measures of

market volatility. More precisely, following Bloom (2009) our measure of market volatility

10
is the VIX index on 1986-2010 supplemented by the volatility of the MSCI US stock marlet

index on 1962-1986. Figure 6 shows suggestive evidence of the negative correlation between

the net foreign asset position as a share of GDP and financial market volatility, consistent

with our “insurance theory” of international currencies. In bad states of the world –such

as the LTCM collapse, 9/11, around the tech bubble collapse and obvisouly the Lehman

Brother default– the centre country transfers significant amounts of wealth to the rest of the

world, while in good times, the rest of the world pays an insurance premium on US assets.

We note that it does not matter whether the shock originates in the US or not as long as it

is a global financial shock. As a matter of fact, large financial shocks originating in the US

tend to become global shocks, against which the US then provides insurance.

In Table 4, we regress the net foreign asset position, and the valuation on the VIX

index. The recent wealth transfer is very spectacular but we do find a negative correlation

is present on the whole period 1962-2010. The correlation is stronger after 1990, that is

financial globalization truly took hold.

3 Theory

We take the following stylized facts from the above empirical evidence:

1. There are excess returns in normal and stress times (‘exorbitant privilege’)

2. The US plays the role of an insurance provider to the rest of the world

3. This insurance is particularly relevant in times of global stress (‘exorbitant duty’).

4. The US is able to run persistent trade deficits.

In this section, we show that facts 1-4 are consistent with a simple model of insurance

provision where the US exhibits smaller risk aversion than the rest of the world. Here, we

take this lower risk aversion as given and show that the related equilibrium exhibits many

of the characteristics that we observe in the data. One possible interpretation, although we

11
don’t want to push it too much, is that the US has access to better technology to deal with

risk, a technology that it is able to ‘export’ to the rest of the world. The planner’s allocation

takes into account that the U.S. has access to this technology and optimally allocates more

risk to the US. This interpretation is isomorphic to the simple model, and is only one of many

possible interpretations. Left for future research is to investigate to what extent perceived

risk aversion in the U.S. is indeed lower than in the rest of the world.

The model also features rare events as in Barro (2006) and non-traded goods as in Hassan

(2009). The first feature allows us to look at the impact of left skewness in the distribution

of global output on the distribution of equilibrium returns. To the extent that the home

country offers insurance to the rest of the world, that insurance will be more valuable when

large negative shocks can happen. The second feature allows us to compare the return on

domestic and foreign real risk free assets, and explore whether the model can deliver the

pattern of excess returns that we document in section 2.

3.1 Motivation with a simple example

In this section, we present a stylized model to illustrate how differences in risk aversion affect

equilibrium allocations. Consider a world economy consisting of two countries, Home and

Foreign, with equal population size equal to 1/2. Following the usual convention, foreign

variables are denoted with an asterisk ‘*’. Time is discrete. In each period t, Home is endowed

with a stochastic amount of a single tradable good yt/2. Home consumption decisions are

made by a representative household with additively separable preferences over consumption

sequences of the form P∞

t=0 β

t

u (ct) where β < 1 is the discount factor, and u (c) exhibits

constant relative risk aversion (CRRA): u (c) = c

1−σ−1

1−σ when σ 6= 1 and u (c) = log (c) when

σ = 1. Foreign receives an endowment y

∗

t

/2. Foreign consumption decisions are also made by

a representative household with CRRA preferences, but we assume that foreign households

are more risk averse, that is: σ

∗ ≥ σ. Markets are complete so that households in each

country can trade state-contingent claims over all the relevant states of nature and global

12
output  ̄y = 0.5 (y + y

∗

) is i.i.d with mean Ey ̄ = Ey = Ey∗.

6

The equilibrium allocation can easily be derived. Setting the ratio of the marginal utility of the home and foreign households to a constant and substituting into the resource

constraint, one obtains, in an ex-ante symmetric equilibrium:7

1

2

c

Ey ̄

+

1

2



c

Ey ̄

σ/σ∗

=

y ̄

Ey ̄

. (1)

Figure 7 plots the equilibrium consumption function c ( ̄y) that solve equation (1), together

with foreign consumption c

∗

( ̄y). The properties of these consumption rules are well-known:

c ( ̄y) is strictly convex, c

∗

( ̄y) strictly concave when σ 6= σ

∗

. When global output is low

( ̄y < Ey ̄), home consumption falls more than foreign consumption: c ( ̄y) < y < c  ̄

∗

( ̄y) as

Home provides insurance to Foreign. The reverse obtains in good times. As a result, Home

consumption is more volatile than Foreign. It is also easy to show that this consumption

rule can be locally decentralized with Home holding a leveraged portfolio σ

∗/ (σ + σ∗

) > 1/2

of the world equity and borrowing in the risk free asset.8 Thus, the international investment position of Home resembles that of the United States, long in equities and short in

riskless assets. Second, the net foreign asset position of Home worsens in bad times, since

it earns a lower return on gross assets (equities) than it pays on gross liabilities (riskless

debt). The deterioration in net foreign assets is necessary to reduce domestic wealth and

induce Home consumption to fall more than Home output, improving Home’s trade balance. This is consistent with the improvement in the trade balance and worsening in the

net foreign asset position of the U.S. in times of global stress. Third, consider the domestic autarky risk-free interest rate Raut

t

. Since under autarky consumption equals output, it

satisfies βRaut

t Et



(yt+1/yt)

−σ



= 1. Assume that domestic output is log-linearly distributed:

ln yt+1 = ln Ey ̄ + ǫt+1 where ǫt+1 is i.i.d normal N (−σ

2

ǫ

/2, σ2

ǫ

). Then, the unconditional

6

It is important that global output exhibit no trend growth. Otherwise, the less risk averse agent dominates the market asymptotically. See Cvitanic et al. (2009).

7To obtain this equilibrium condition, observe that in the symmetric equilibrium without risk, i.e.  ̄y = Ey,  ̄

the equilibrium would be c = c

∗ = Ey.  ̄ This pins down the weights of the equivalent planner’s problem.

8To see this, observe that a log-linearization of domestic consumption around its mean yields 1

2

cˆ =

σ

∗

σ∗+σ

by.  ̄

This can be achieved locally with aggregate domestic holdings of a claim to global output equal to σ

∗

σ∗+σ > 12

.

13
autarky risk-free rate satisfies:

E ln R

aut

t = − ln β −

σ

2

2

σ

2

ǫ

.

The second term reflects the effect of the precautionary saving motive on equilibrium rates:

as the variance of shocks or risk aversion increases, so does the demand for the safe asset,

pushing down equilibrium risk free returns. Similar calculations for the foreign autarky rate

imply:

E ln R

∗aut

t − E ln R

aut

t =

σ

2 − σ∗2

2

σ

2

ǫ < 0,

since σ < σ∗. The lower autarky risk-free rates abroad reflects the stronger precautionary

saving motive in the foreign country. With a lower autarky rate in Foreign than Home,

financial integration implies that Home will run a trade deficit on average: E [y − c ( ̄y)] < 0.

9

Again, this feature of the data accords well with the broad empirical evidence for the U.S.

Differences in risk aversion play a similar role here as differences in the supply of assets in

Caballero et al. (2008) or differences in the degree of domestic risks sharing in Mendoza et al.

(2009) and generate ‘global imbalances.’

How should we interpret differences in risk aversion between home and foreign households? Beyond a direct interpretation as differences in risk appetite, which we don’t find

particularly plausible, other interpretations are possible. For instance, suppose that Home

has identical risk preferences as Foreign. However, Home has access to a technology that

‘transforms’ a given level of expenditures e into a consumption stream c that is then consumed by domestic households: c = T (e). It is easy to check that the equilibrium allocation

of expenditures is identical to the previous case, with e in place of c in equation (1), if

T (e) = e

(1−σ)/(1−σ

∗

)

. More generally, any concave transformation T (e) will have the effect of increasing the apparent risk appetite of domestic households relative to their foreign

counterparts. While Home households appear less risk averse, they enjoy in fact a consump9This can also be directly verified by noting that E [y − c ( ̄y)] = Ey ̄−E [c ( ̄y)] , and Ey ̄ = c (Ey ̄) < E [c ( ̄y)]

since c (.) is a strictly convex function.

14
tion allocation that is even less volatile than foreign households (compare T (e) and c

∗ on

figure 7).10 The equilibrium allocation recognizes that Home households have access to a

risk-reducing technology and optimally leverages Home equilibrium expenditures.11 One possible interpretation of this risk reducing technology is that it reflects the interplay between

domestic financial development and financial frictions. For instance, in a more elaborate

model, financial development at home may reduce the importance of liquidity constraints,

increasing the perceived risk appetite of home households (See Gertler and Kiyotaki (2009)).

It is beyond this paper to provide a full justification for observed differences in risk appetite.

We simply take them as given when characterizing equilibrium returns and allocations and

leave the question of their origin open for future research.

While the simple model above captures the essence of the mechanism we want to study,

it is too stylized for a detailed exploration of equilibrium returns and trade flows. In a onegood setting, it is not possible to explore differences in risk-free returns between the home

and foreign country in equilibrium. To do so, we introduce non-traded goods, in a manner

similar to Hassan (2009). In that paper, differences in size generate systematic differences

in risk free returns. The intuition for Hassan’s result is simple and intuitive: since shocks

to larger countries matter more to the global investor, insurance, in the form of the risk-free

bond of the large economy, is also more valuable. In our model, differences in risk appetite

introduce another reason why holding the risk-free asset of the less risk averse economy may

be more valuable. As in Hassan (2009), we keep markets complete so as to obtain an easy

characterization of equilibrium allocations and asset prices. By introducing both size and

risk aversion as sources of heterogeneity, we can compare their relative role in generating

excess returns. Second, we follow Barro (2006) and introduce rare disasters. These disasters

generate left skewness in the distribution of global output, allowing us to clearly identify the

impact of global stress on equilibrium returns and allocations. Because the foreign country

10Since σ < σ∗

, it is immediate that T (e) is more concave than c

∗

(e).

11The technology T (.) alters the resource constraint of the economy, which is why the solution is not the

symmetric allocation of the planner under identical preferences. The implicit assumption is that the risk

altering technology is only applied to the expenditure allocation of the home country, and not to global

output, otherwise the equilibrium would be c = c

∗ = T ( ̄y).

15
is more risk averse, insurance is especially valuable when disasters are possible.12

3.2 A Model of Global Disasters and Insurance

This section introduces a model of risk sharing with heterogeneity in risk aversion and size.

The model extends the simple example studied in the previous section along the following

dimensions: (a) there are traded and non-traded goods, so that home and foreign real riskfree bonds offer potentially different returns; (b) the economy is subjected to rare disasters

as in Barro (2006). These disasters are symmetric, i,.e. they affect output in all countries

and all sectors identically; (c) countries can differ in size. We are interested in characterizing

the equilibrium pattern of risk sharing, equilibrium returns

3.2.1 Model Setup

The world economy consists of two countries, Home and Foreign. The world is populated

by a continuum of households of constant mass equal to 1. A share α of the world population is located in the home country and a share 1 − α in the foreign country. Time is

discrete, t = 1, 2.... Each period, each household ω receives a stochastic endowment of a

traded good y

T

t

(ω) and of a country-specific non-traded good y

N

t

(ω). We denote y

T

t

and

y

N

t

(resp. y

∗T

t and y

∗N

t

) the average endowment of the Home (resp. Foreign) traded and

non-traded goods in period t.

13 Under our preference assumptions, we will only need to

keep track of these country-level average endowments. Each country admits a representative household representation with additively separable preferences defined over aggregate

consumption sequences {cs}

∞

s=t

:

Ut = Et

X∞

s=t

β

s−t

u (cs),

12Unlike Guo (2007), our disaster shocks are global and symmetric, affecting both traded and non-traded

output in both countries.

13That is, yT

t =

R

ω∈ΩH

y

T

t

(ω) dμ (ω) where μ denotes the measure of households over ω and ΩH is the set

of domestic households. y

∗T

t

, yN

t and y

∗N

t are defined similarly.

16
where the per-period utility function u (c) exhibits constant relative risk aversion (CRRA):

u (c) = c

1−σ−1

1−σ when the coefficient of relative risk aversion σ 6= 1 and u (c) = log (c) when

σ = 1. Foreign preferences are defined identically, except that the foreign representative

household is potentially more risk averse: σ

∗ ≥ σ. This difference in risk aversion is constant

and permanent. The consumption aggregate c is defined identically in both countries as a

constant elasticity index of traded and non-traded consumption:

c =

h

γ

1/θ 

c

T

 θ−1

θ + (1 − γ)

1/θ 

c

N

 θ−1

θ

i θ

θ−1

,

where θ > 0 is the elasticity of substitution between traded and non-traded goods, and

γ ∈ (0, 1) denotes the steady state share of traded consumption expenditures. A similar

definition applies to the foreign consumption aggregate. Taking the traded good as the

numeraire and denoting q the price of the domestic non-tradable good (in terms of the

traded good), the domestic price index is the Fisher-ideal deflator of domestic aggregate

consumption:

P =



γ + (1 − γ) q

1−θ

1/(1−θ)

,

with a similar definition for the foreign price index in terms of the price of foreign non-traded

goods q

∗

.

The resource constraints are given by

αcT + (1 − α) c

∗T =  ̄yT

; c

N = yN ; c∗N = y∗N , (2a)

where  ̄y

T

is the global supply of the traded good:  ̄y

T ≡ αyT + (1 − α) y∗T

.

We assume that markets are complete internationally, so that a full menu of statecontingent claims denominated in the traded good can be exchanged between Home and

Foreign. As usual, the complete market allocation solves a standard planning problem of

maximizing a weighted sum of discounted utilities

17
max

{c

T

t

,c∗T

t

,cN

t

,c∗N

t }

μαE0

X∞

t=0

β

t

u (ct) + (1 − μ) (1 − α) E0

X∞

t=0

β

t

u

∗

(c

∗

t

)

subject to the resource constraints (2), where μ ∈ [0, 1] represents the weight given by the

planner to Home households.

The first-order condition of the planner’s problem impose that the marginal utility of

tradable consumption be proportional across states and countries:

c

(1/θ−σ)

t



c

T

t

−1/θ

κ

−1/θ = c

∗(1/θ−σ

∗

)

t



c

∗T

t

−1/θ

, (3)

where κ = (μ/ (1 − μ))−θis a constant. According to the risk sharing condition (3), shocks

to the endowment of non-traded goods will shift the marginal utility of traded good consumption when preferences are non-separable, i.e. when σ 6= 1/θ. When σ > 1/θ, traded

and non-traded goods are gross substitutes: a decline in the endowment of non-traded good

increases the marginal utility of traded good consumption. Conversely, when σ < 1/θ, the

traded and non-traded goods are gross complements: a decline in the endowment of the

non-traded good reduces the marginal utility of traded good consumption.

Given an equilibrium allocation, the price of the non-traded good can be obtained as the

ratio of marginal utilities for traded and non traded goods:

qt =



γyN

t

(1 − γ) c

T

t

−1/θ

. (4)

From (3), the –common– stochastic discount factor is given by

Mt,t+1 = β



ct+1

ct

1

θ −σ 

c

T

t+1

c

T

t

−1/θ

, (5)

and satisfies

Et[Mt,t+1Rt+1] = 1, (6)

for any traded asset with gross return Rt+1 in terms of the traded good.

18
3.2.2 Characterization

The set of risk sharing conditions (3), together with the resource constraints (2), provide a

set of necessary and sufficient conditions to characterize the equilibrium allocation. One

can simplify the analysis of the equilibrium allocation by defining x = κcσθ−1/c∗σ

∗θ−1

.

The risk sharing condition (3) become c

∗T = xcT and the resource constraint yields cT =

y ̄

T / [α + (1 − α) x] . x controls the equilibrium allocation of the global endowment of traded

goods between domestic and foreign households. When x = 1, consumptions per capita are

equated and c

T = c∗T =  ̄yT

. When x > 1, the foreign country obtains a larger share of the

traded good: c

∗T > y ̄T > cT

.

Substituting the previous expression into the definition of the domestic and foreign consumption index, x needs to satisfy

x

κ

θ−1

θ

=



γ

1/θ 

y ̄

T / [α + (1 − α) x]

 θ−1

θ + (1 − γ)

1/θ 

y

N

 θ−1

θ

σθ−1



γ

1/θ (xy ̄T / [α + (1 − α) x])

θ−1

θ + (1 − γ)

1/θ (y

∗N )

θ−1

θ

σ∗θ−1

. (7)

This expression highlights how x varies with the realizations of both traded and nontraded goods endowments. Consider the case where σ > 1/θ. A decline in y

N raises Home’s

marginal utility of traded good consumption. Risk sharing requires that Home consumes

relatively more of the traded good, a decrease in x. A similar effect occurs when y

∗N increases

(since σ

∗ > 1/θ). A fall in the global endowment of tradables  ̄yT

impacts relatively more

the more risk averse country. As a result, risk sharing requires that x increases, allocating

more traded consumption to Foreign.

It is immediate from (7) that as long as endowments follow a stationary process, so

does x. It follows that the equilibrium distributions of home and foreign consumption is

also stationary in that case.14 Formally, (7) admits a solution x = x (y;κ) where y =



y

T

, y∗T, yN , y∗N

′

is the vector of endowments. In general, x is determined only implicitly.

In two special cases, we obtain an analytical solution. First, when σ = σ

∗ = 1/θ, one can

14By contrast, if endowments are growing over time, it is easy to check that x converges to 0 : the less risk

averse households dominates aggregate consumption asymptotically. See Cvitanic et al. (2009).

19
check that the solution is x = κ = 1.15 The consumption of traded goods in each country is

equal to the global endowment of traded goods, and the stochastic discount factor simplifies

to the usual formula Mt,t+1 = β



y ̄

T

t+1/y ̄

T

t

−σ

. Second, when θ = 1 and α = 1 (large country

limit), we obtain x

1+γ(σ

∗−1) = κy ̄

T γ(σ−σ

∗

)



y

N(σ−1)/y∗N(σ

∗−1)1−γ

. This expression illustrates

that the allocation of traded goods between Home and Foreign depends upon the global

endowment of traded good  ̄y

T only to the extent that risk appetite differs across countries

(σ 6= σ

∗

).

In the general case, we can write

Mt,t+1 = M (yt, yt+1; κ) (8)

= β





γ

1/θ 

y ̄

T

t+1/ [α + (1 − α) xt+1]

 θ−1

θ + (1 − γ)

1/θ 

y

N

t+1 θ−1

θ

γ

1/θ ( ̄y

T

t / [α + (1 − α) xt

])

θ−1

θ + (1 − γ)

1/θ (y

N

t

)

θ−1

θ





1−σθ

θ−1

.



y ̄

T

t+1

y ̄

T

t

α + (1 − α) xt

α + (1 − α) xt+1 −1/θ

.

This expression illustrates Hassan (2009)’s main point: as α increases, the stochastic

discount factor increasingly reflects the endowments shocks of the larger economy. In the

large country limit (α = 1),

limα→1Mt,t+1 = β





γ

1/θ 

y ̄

T

t+1 θ−1

θ + (1 − γ)

1/θ 

y

N

t+1 θ−1

θ

γ

1/θ ( ̄y

T

t

)

θ−1

θ + (1 − γ)

1/θ (y

N

t

)

θ−1

θ





1−σθ

θ−1 

y ̄

T

t+1

y ̄

T

t

−1/θ

,

and the stochastic discount factor responds exclusively to Home’s endowment shocks.16

Finally, the relative weight κ needs to be such that the planner’s allocation coincides with

the competitive equilibrium in which households in both countries have no initial debt and

own the claims to their domestic traded and non-traded endowments. Formally, the domestic

15The latter condition obtains by symmetry when σ = σ∗

.

16In the limit of α = 1, y ̄T = yT

.

20
intertemporal budget constraint in the competitive equilibrium is

X∞

t=0

E0



M0,t Ptct −



y

T

t + qty

N

t

 = 0, (9)

where M0,t is the stochastic discount factor between period 0 and period t, defined recursively as M0,t = M0,t−1.Mt−1,t and M0,0 = 1. The restriction (9) can equivalently be

rewritten as NA0 = 0, where the net foreign asset in period t, NAt, is defined as NAt =

−

P∞

s=t Et



Mt,s y

T

t − c

T

s

 .

17 The term inside the parenthesis represents the domestic trade

surplus in period t. Hence the net foreign asset position always equal the opposite of the

present value of future trade surpluses, valued using the equilibrium pricing kernel Mt,s. If

the endowment process is Markov, so that E [yt+1|yt, yt−1, ...yt−k, ...] = E [yt+1|yt] , we can

write NA = NA (y; κ) and solve for κ such that NA (y0; κ) = 0.

3.2.3 Business cycles and disasters

To illustrate the impact of heterogeneity in risk aversion and size in times of global stress,

we assume the following process for traded and non-traded domestic output

ln y

T

t = ln γ + ǫ

T

t + vt

, (10a)

ln y

N

t = ln (1 − γ) + ǫ

N

t + vt

, (10b)

and

ln y

∗T

t = ln γ + ǫ

∗T

t + vt

, (11a)

ln y

∗N

t = ln (1 − γ) + ǫ

∗N

t + vt

, (11b)

for traded and non-traded foreign output.

17To see that NAt is indeed the net foreign asset position, notice that it is equal to the difference between

the domestic wealth of the representative household, defined as the market value of current and future

domestic consumption expenditures Wt =

P∞

s=t Et [Mt,sPtct] , and the market value of a claim to current

and future domestic endowments Vt =

P∞

s=t Et



Mt,s y

T

t + qty

N

t

 .

21
The random terms ǫ

T

, ǫN and ǫ

∗T

, ǫ∗N are uncorrelated, i.i.d normally distributed shocks

with mean −σ

2

ǫ

/2 and variance σ

2

ǫ

. These terms capture regular business cycle fluctuations in

output. Fluctuations in output trigger a precautionary saving motive whose strength varies

across countries when σ 6= σ

∗

.

The random term vt captures low-probability disasters, as in Barro (2006). As in that

paper, disasters are independent from ǫ shocks. Unlike Barro (2006), we assume that the

output process is stationary in levels: disasters are –eventually– followed by recoveries. This

assumption is made mostly for tractability since it ensures that the consumption process

remains stationary, even when home and foreign households have different risk appetite.

However, this assumption has also substantive merits. Nakamura et al. (2010) found that

roughly half of the fall in consumption during disasters is subsequently reversed, indicating

partial recovery. Given the curvature of the utility function it remains true that disasters

matter much more than recoveries for equilibrium asset returns. We model vt as a twostate Markov process, with values vd and vn and transition probabilities P (vd|vn) = pd and

P (vn|vd) = pn. vd and vn satisfy

vn = − ln ( ̄pd (1 − b) + 1 − p ̄d) (12a)

vd = − ln ( ̄pd + (1 − p ̄d) / (1 − b)), (12b)

where  ̄pd is the unconditional probability of disaster, and b ∈ [0, 1).18 This representation of

the disaster process ensures that output drops by a factor (1 − b) when a disaster occurs, a

number that has been estimated in the literature, and that EyT = Ey∗T = γ, and EyN =

Ey∗N = 1−γ regardless of b. In other words, by varying b, we are changing the left skewness

of the output process, keeping expected output constant. pd and pn represent respectively

the conditional probability of a disaster (in good times) and the probability of a recovery

(from a disaster).

Our specification implies that rare events are global: when a disaster occurs, output

18p ̄d is the probability of disaster under the ergodic distribution associated with the Markov chains:  ̄pd =

pd/ (pd + pn).

22
jumps down in the same proportion in all sectors and countries. It would be straightforward

to extend the analysis to the case of country-specific disasters.19 The empirical evidence

discussed in Nakamura et al. (2010) supports the notion that some disasters are local and

others global. In the context of the model, it is immediate that patterns of risk sharing

resembling what we observe in the data would emerge if disasters are either more severe

or more frequent in Foreign. But this hardly seems a reasonable assumption considering

that the recent crisis originated in the U.S., not in the rest of the world. Instead, our

approach explores the extent to which Home is able to provide insurance in times of global

stress. Under equations (10)-(12), the stochastic process for endowments follows a stationary

Markov process and we can solve for x (y; κ) and κ.

3.2.4 Approximate analytical results without disasters

As a starting point, consider the case without disaster shocks (b = pd = 1−pn = 0). For small

ǫ shocks around the steady state, we can obtain approximate the solution to the planner’s

problem and characterize analytically the properties of the allocation.

Allocation, and Asset Returns. For small ǫ shocks, the return on any traded asset

Rt+1, in terms of tradable, satisfies approximately

ln EtRt+1 ≈ − ln EtMt,t+1 − covt ( ˆmt,t+1, rˆt+1),

where ˆz denotes the log-deviation of variable Ztfrom its steady state Z.  ̄ It follows that the

difference in log-expected return between two assets Ri

t+1 and R

j

t+1 satisfies

ln EtR

j

t+1 − ln EtR

i

t+1 ≈ covt



mˆ t,t+1, rˆ

i

t+1

− covt



mˆ t,t+1, rˆ

j

t+1

. (13)

As Hassan (2009) noted, while the returns Ri and Rj are measured in terms of tradable, the

excess return is invariant to the choice of numeraire. Assuming that a country’s risk-free

19See Guo (2007).

23
government bond is simply an asset that pays that country’s price index, and applying (13),

the expected excess return between domestic and foreign real risk-free interest rates is20

ln EtR

∗f

t+1 − ln EtR

f

t+1 = covt ( ˆmt,t+1, pˆt+1) − covt



mˆ t,t+1, pˆ

∗

t+1

(14)

= (1 − γ) covt



mˆ t,t+1, qˆt+1 − qˆ

∗

t+1

,

where the second line makes use of the log-approximation ˆp = (1 − γ) ˆq. This expression

makes clear that domestic real interest rates will –on average– be lower when the ratio of

domestic to foreign non traded price is positively correlated with the stochastic discount

factor, that is when times of relative scarcity ( ˆm > 0) are also times when domestic nontraded prices are high (ˆq > qˆ

∗

).

As discussed in the empirical section, one definition of the ‘exorbitant privivege’ is that

the U.S. experiences a lower risk free return: ln EtR

∗f

t+1 − ln EtR

f

t+1 > 0. Can our model of

risk-sharing reproduce this feature? Log-linearizing equations (4), (7) and (8), appendix B

derives the following equilibrium allocations in deviation from steady state:

xˆt =

γθ (σ − σ

∗

) by ̄

T

t + (1 − γ)



(σθ − 1) ˆy

N

t − (σ

∗

θ − 1) ˆy

∗N

t



1 + γ (σθ − 1) (1 − α) + γ (σ

∗θ − 1) α

cˆ

T

t = by ̄

T

t − (1 − α) ˆxt

; ˆct = γcˆ

T

t + (1 − γ) ˆy

N

t

qˆt =

1

θ



cˆ

T

t − yˆ

N

t



; ˆpt = (1 − γ) ˆqt

mˆ t,t+1 = (1/θ − σ) (ˆct+1 − cˆt) − 1/θ cˆ

T

t+1 − cˆ

T

t



.

After simple but tedious algebra, one can show that expected excess return on risk free

20To see this, observe that, in terms of tradables, R

f

t+1 = Pt+1/Et [Mt,t+1Pt+1] with a similar definition

for R

∗f

t+1.

Although each real interest rate is risk free in terms of its own consumption price index, they are not

riskless in terms of the tradable good, or any common numeraire.

24
bonds can be expressed as

ln EtR

∗f

t+1 − ln EtR

f

t+1 = ((1 − γ) / [1 + (σθ − 1) γ (1 − α) + (σ

∗

θ − 1) γα])2 σ

2

ǫ

θ

(15)

[−γ (σ

∗ − σ) (1 + (σθ − 1) γ) (1 + (σ∗

θ − 1) γ) / (1 − γ)

+α (σθ − 1) (1 + (σ

∗

θ − 1) γ) (σ + (σ

∗ − σ) γα)

− (1 − α) (σ

∗

θ − 1) (1 + (σθ − 1) γ) (σ

∗ − (σ∗ − σ) γ (1 − α))] .

The first term inside the brackets reflects the covariance between the marginal utility of

wealth and the relative price of non-traded goods, conditional on shocks to traded output.

It is proportional to the difference in risk aversion (σ

∗ − σ) and is always negative: when the

global output of traded goods declines (by ̄

T

t < 0), domestic consumption of traded goods fall

more than foreign consumption (ˆx > 0) because foreign is more risk averse. Consequently, the

price of domestic non-traded goods falls more than the price of foreign non-traded goods: ˆq <

qˆ

∗

(non-traded goods are relatively more abundant at home than abroad). The domestic price

index declines more than the foreign one, hence foreign real bonds provide a comparatively

better hedge. This effect is scaled by the size of the traded sector γ, disappears when

home and foreign have the same risk appetite (σ = σ

∗

) and is independent of size α. The

second term in brackets reflects the effect of shocks to domestic non-traded output y

N . A

decline in the endowment of domestic non-traded goods yˆ

N < 0



increases the domestic

marginal utility of traded goods when the goods are gross substitutes (σθ > 1). Home

traded consumption increases (ˆx < 0), so the relative price of domestic non-traded goods

increases: ˆq > qˆ

∗

(domestic non-traded are relatively scarcer at home) and the domestic real

bond provides a good hedge. The last term represents the effect of shocks to the endowment

of foreign non-traded. By a similar argument, the foreign bond provides a good hedge against

shocks to the foreign non-traded good. The last two terms are proportional to the size of

the home and foreign country (α and (1 − α)). This extends the results from Hassan (2009)

25
to the case where countries have different risk appetites.21

How large are these expected excess returns? To answer this question, we need to calibrate

the following parameters of the model: γ, θ, σ, σ∗, σǫ and α. Our approach is to adopt fairly

standard values for γ, θ, σ and σǫ and to vary α and σ

∗

. γ measures the share of traded goods

in consumption expenditures around the steady state. We assume a low value γ = 0.25,

consistent with the indirect evidence on high trade costs (see Obstfeld and Rogoff (2005)

for a discussion). θ measures the elasticity of substitution between traded and non-traded

goods. Estimates in the literature are fairly low, between 0.5 and 1.3.22 We adopt a value

θ = 1, towards the higher end of that range. Reasonable values for the coefficient of relative

risk aversion σ vary between 2 and 5. We choose σ = 3 as a benchmark and will vary σ

∗ ≥ σ.

Finally, the model requires an estimate of the volatility of output around its steady state. As

argued above, the assumption of stationarity is mostly maintained to ensure stationarity of

consumption allocations. Consequently, we need input the standard deviation of log output

deviations from a Hodrick-Prescott filter. Using annual data, a common value is σ = 0.02.

[To be expanded].

The top row of Figure 8 reports the expected riskfree excess return in two configurations.

The left panel sets σ

∗ = 4 and varies α between 0.5 and 1. The excess return increases with

α from -0.04 percent to 0.08 percent. The right panel sets α = 0.75 and varies σ

∗ between

σ = 3 and 5. We find that the excess returns decrease with σ

∗

, from 0.045 percent to 0.005

percent, as the foreign bond increasingly becomes a better hedge. In either simulation,

the size of the excess returns is really tiny, reaching at most 0.08 percent per annum. We

conclude that, while the model is theoretically capable of generating excess returns, these

are quite small compared to the empirical evidence. One issue, of course, is that the model

cannot generate significant risk premia -be it the equity risk premium, or in the case that

21When σ = σ∗

, (15) collapses to Hassan (2009)’s formula

ln EtR

∗f

t+1 − ln EtR

f

t+1 =

σ (σ − 1/θ) (1 − γ)

2

1 + (σθ − 1) γ

(2α − 1) σ

2

ǫ

22See the discussion in Obstfeld and Rogoff (2005).

26
concerns us, a risk premium between home and foreign risk-free bonds.

Portfolios Appendix B also shows how to construct a local portfolio that supports the

efficient consumption allocation. Such a portfolio can be obtained by trading claims to next

period’s global endowment –traded and non-traded– as well as the domestic and foreign riskfree bonds.23 That these three assets are sufficient to support locally the efficient allocation

is immediate since there are only three relevant sources of risk in our set-up:  ̄y

T

, yN and y

∗N

and the returns on these three assets satisfies a spanning condition.24

The bottow row of figure 8 reports the equilibrium holdings of these three assets for

the same set of simulations described above. As expected, we observe that Home holds

a leveraged portfolio when σ < σ∗. Domestic holdings of the global equity always exceed

unity.25 This long equity porftolio is financed by issuing riskfree bonds. While the overall

domestic bond position is necessarily short, domestic households concentrate the leverage

in the foreign riskfree bond, while holding a long position in their own bond. This feature

of the model is quite different from the data, where the U.S. is holding a short position in

its own riskfree bond. As the home country becomes larger or the foreign country less risk

averse, leverage diminishes.

In summary, variation in size or risk appetite are insufficient per se to generate excess

returns of the size we observe in the data. Moreover, the pattern of leverage does not

resemble the structure of the external position of the U.S.

3.2.5 Quantitative results with disasters

We now extend the model by adding disaster risk. As is well known, disaster risk has the

potential to increase risk premia. To the extent that domestic and foreign government bonds

have different risk exposure from the point of view of the marginal investor, this may magnify

23With a slight abuse of langage, we call the claim to next period’s endowment ‘global equity.’ A global

equity also includes a claim on endowments beyond period t + 1.

24Of course, one could indifferently use any set of three assets whose payoffs span the space defined by

the original shocks. Our focus on global equity and risk-free bonds is natural and in the spirit of the Lucas

(1982) original decentralization result.

25Recall that these holdings S are per household. Aggregate domestic holdings of equity are equal to αS.

27
expected excess returns, potentially accounting for the ‘exorbitant privilege’. Furthermore,

when risk appetite differs across countries, the occurrence of a symmetric disaster triggers a

reallocation of resources and associated valuation adjustments that resembles what happened

in 2007-2008 between the U.S. and the rest of the world. In other words, the model can also

account for the ‘exorbitant duty’.

We begin with a calibration of the remaining parameters of the models. First, we set the

discount factor β so as to generate the same price-earning ratio as in a model with output

growth, or β = 0.923 in our benchmark calibration.26 Next, we set σ

∗ = 4 and α = 0.75.

The large value of α reflects the relative importance of the U.S. economy for global outcomes

and captures traditional arguments in favor of the U.S. as the issuer of the reserve currency.

Second, we calibrate the process for disaster events. We set the conditional probability

of a disaster occurring pd at 1.17 percent per year, as in Barro (2006). We also set the

probability of recoveries pn at 2 percent. This implies that disasters are rather persistent

affairs and yields an unconditional probability of disasters slightly larger than 45 percent.27

Next, we calibrate the size of the disaster by setting b = 0.42. Barro (2006) estimates a

similar parameter between 0.15 and 0.65. Our estimate is around the middle of that range.

Lastly, as in Barro (2006), we allow for the possibility that government T-bills experience

a partial default when disaster occurs. That is, we assume that real government bonds pay

the local consumer price index in normal times, but only a fraction of the promised payment

in periods of global stress. An important parameter is the expected recovery rate r

i on

government bonds from country i. The face value in normal times (in terms of traded

goods) of a government bond that pays P

i

is then (in terms of tradables):

P

bi

t = (1 − pd) Et



Mt,t+1P

i

t+1|n



+ pdr

iEt



Mt,t+1P

i

t+1|d



,

26In a model without shocks (disasters or otherwise) and no growth, the PE ratio is 1/



β

−1 − 1



. With

a growth rate of g, the PE ratio becomes 1/



β

−1 − 1 + (σ − 1) g



. Consequently, we set β

−1 = 1.03 +

(σ − 1) 0.025.

27This number has no impact on allocations (consumption and trade balances) and a minimal impact on

excess returns in normal times. It influences expected returns during a disaster since a higher pn implies a

larger chance of a recovery and incipient high return.

28
and the expected return on the government bond is

ln EtR

bi

t+1 = ln 

(1 − pd) Et



P

i

t+1|n



+ pdr

iEt



P

i

t+1|d

 − ln P

bi

t

.

We interpret r

i as capturing in a simple way the ‘fiscal capacity’ of country i, i.e. the

capacity for the government of that country to honor it’s debt obligations through taxation

of the domestic economy. Barro (2006) documents that the real return on T-bills in many

countries was low during rare events, either because of outright default or expropriation, or

–a more common scenarion– because of the real depreciation of nominal claims through high

inflation. r, therefore, represents another important parameter, conceptually separate but

not entirely unrelated to size or risk appetite. For instance, r captures implicitly a host of

political economy factors that determine a country’s ‘willingness to pay’ as opposed to its

‘ability to pay.’ as measured by its size Most of the literature on sovereign debt emphasizes

the important of a country’s ‘willingness to pay’ in understanding episodes of sovereign

default. We allow for differences in recovery rates across countries. Specifically, we assume

that Home can enforce repayment (r = 1) while Foreign may suffer from partial implicit or

explicit default (r

∗ < 1).

To solve the model, we discretize the state space and solve for the optimal consumption allocation in each state such that there are initially no net external positions (NA (x0; κ) = 0).

We then construct the stochastic discount factor Mt,t+1 and use this SDF to price government real bonds and global equities. We then construct the local portfolio that replicates the

return on domestic financial wealth through holdings of a global equity claim and domestic

real bond government bond.28 Finally, we construct gross external assets and liabilities using

NAi = Ai − L

i = Wi − Vi where Wi

is the value of claim on current and future domestic

expenditures {P

i

sC

i

s

}

∞

s=t

, and V

i

is the value of a claim to domestic output y

iT

s + q

i

s

y

iN

s

	∞

s=t

.

Details are provided in appendix B.

Table 5 reports the results under different scenarios. In each column, we report proper28These two assets are sufficient to replicate wealth returns. In practice, it is natural to consider Home’s

government debt since Home will hold a leveraged portfolio in equilibrium.

29
ties of the equilibrium allocation under a set of parameters. Column (1)-(4) report results

assuming that there are no global shocks. Column (1) corresponds to Hassan (2009). The

sole difference between Home and Foreign is in size (α = 0.75). The excess return between

domestic and foreign government bonds, 0.04 percent, is precisely that predicted in that

paper. Note however, that the model cannot account for the pattern of external assets and

liabilities we observe in the data (no trade deficits and no net foreign asset position). Moving

across the rows, we introduce first differences in risk aversion (column (2)), increase the size

of the home country (column (3)), and reduce the elasticity of substitution between traded

and non-traded goods (column (4)). We define the equity premium, ln EtR ̄e

t+1 − ln EtRbt+1,

as the excess return on a claim to global endowment (traded and non-traded) relative to the

domestic government bond. In specifications (1)-(4), the equity premium is small, between

10 and 17 bp per year. This is not surprising, since the model without disaster risk delivers

an equity risk premium approximately equal to σ.σ2

ǫ = 3 (0.02)2 = 0.0012. As Foreign risk

aversion increases (column (2)), the expected excess return on foreign government bonds

decreases, as in figure 8. Home now holds a leveraged portfolio, borrowing from Foreign and

investing in global equities, but the size of that portfolio is small, only about 7.5 percent

of Home’s output. Further, Home is not running a significant deficit or surplus. Finally,

while there is still some small excess return on government bonds, there is no excess return

on gross external assets over gross external liabilities. Columns (3) and (4) document that

this result is robust to reasonable variations in parameters. Increasing the size of the domestic economy or reducing the elasticity of substitution between traded and nontraded have

minimal impact on the results.29

Columns (5)-(7) reports results when we introduce disaster shocks, as specified above.

In all three specifications, the equity premium jumps to a more reasonable value, between

4.08 and 4.52 percent in normal times and a price earning ratio between 15 and 16 in normal

times, collapsing to 10.5 in times of stress. Columns (5) and (6) assume that there is no

partial default on foreign government obligations (r

∗ = r = 1) while column (5) maintains

29Column (3) reports the trade balance, net foreign assets and net debt liabilities of Foreign, since under

the large country assumption (α = 1), home trade balance and net foreign asset position are necessary zero.

30
σ

∗ = σ = 3, in order to tease out the pure effect of economic size in presence of disaster risk.

Not surprisingly, given that disasters are symmetric, the excess return on government bonds

remains very small, at 0.04 percent, while the excess return on the net foreign asset position

is zero. We conclude from this that economic size per se (as measured by α) matter very

little for the structure of returns.

Column (6) introduces differences in risk appetite. The results are dramatically different.

First, with differences in risk appetite, Home will provide insurance against global risks to

Foreign. This is reflected in the patter of trade deficits/surpluses of the Home country. In

normal times, it is running a trade deficit, of about 0.72 percent of output. When a disaster

occurs, however, this trade deficit becomes a trade surplus of 1.38 percent of output.30 This

pattern of trade deficits has a counterpart in the domestic net foreign asset position.31 In

normal times, Home has a small net foreign asset position, varying between +/-0.8 percent

of output. Once a disaster strikes, however, Home’s net foreign asset position worsens

considerably, on average by 14.5 percent of output. With reasonable parameters, the model

can therefore reproduce the size of the net wealth transfer from Home to Foreign during

times of global stress, the ‘exorbitant duty.’

How can Home stabilize it’s net foreign asset position in normal times despite repeated

trade deficits, varying between 0 and 1.6 percent of output? The answer is that Home’s

net foreign position benefits from valuation gains in normal times that offset trade deficits.

In terms of portfolios, Home now holds a very leveraged portfolio, with net debt liabilities

equal to roughly 55 percent of output, that are reinvested in global equities. This portfolio

delivers small positive excess returns in good times –enough to offset the trade deficits of

0.8 percent of output– and significant losses in bad times. The collapse in net foreign asset

positions reflects the collapse in the value of global equity, from 16 times output to 10 when a

disaster strikes. Hence, the model also delivers the ‘exorbitant privilege’ that we documented

earlier. It might seem surprising, from that point of view that Table 5 reports excess returns

30Unconditionnally, since disasters are less likely than normal times, Home runs a small trade deficit of

0.18 percent of output.

31Recall that NAt = −NXT + Et [Mt,t+1NAt+1] .

31
on gross assets equal to only 0.15 percent. This calls for two remarks. First, this small

excess return is substantially leveraged since the return on the net foreign asset position is

RNA = RL + μA



RA − RL



where μA = A/ (A − L) can be a very large number. Hence,

the return, as a fraction of output can be substantially larger. Second, the trade deficit in

normal times remains small, -0.8 percent of output, so the valuation gain needs to be of the

same order to stabilize the external debt. Finally, while the model does deliver excess returns

on Home’s external position, it does not produce a lower yield on Home’s real government

bonds. The government bond excess return is -1.87 percent in normal times. To understand

this result, observe that when a disaster strikes global endowment fall proportionately in all

sectors and countries. Since Home insures Foreign, however, Home’s consumption of traded

goods falls relatively more than Foreign’s. Hence Home runs a smaller trade deficit, or trade

surplus. This implies that the domestic non-traded goods are relatively more abundant and

their price falls more, relative to Foreign. The net result is that the domestic real bond is

not a particularly good hedge against global shocks since the domestic price index will fall

more than foreign. The higher return is required to induce Foreign to hold domestic real

government debt. This result changes in column (7) when we allow for partial default on

foreign real bonds. We set an average recovery rate r

∗ = 0.75, which is consistent with the

numbers reported in Barro (2006).32 The allocation is unchanged by this assumption, since

we are only modifying the payoff structure of one assets (foreign real bonds) but keeping the

overall market structure unchanged. Therefore, the pattern of trade deficits in good times,

trade surpluses in bad times, remains the same, as does the structure of excess returns on

gross assets and liabilities and net debt holdings.33 The only difference is the excess return

between real domestic and foreign government bonds. We now find small positive excess

returns on real bonds, of 0.34 percent. Foreign real bonds are now less desirable since their

payoff is likely to be reduced in times of global stress.

32Barro considers a 40 percent probability of partial default during a disaster in which case the loss is of

a size similar to the loss of output. This yields a slightly higher recovery rate of 0.83.

33This last result is immediate since in equilibrium only Home issues debt.

32
4 Conclusion

To be written.

33
average returns 1952:1-2009:4 1952:1-1972:4 1973:1-2009:4

(a) : Valuations

r

a − rl 2.69% 1.30% 3.47%

r

a 5.84% 5.04% 6.30%

r

l

3.16% 3.74% 2.83%

(b) : Financial Flows

r

a − rl 1.49% 1.25% 1.62%

r

a 4.91% 4.71% 5.02%

r

l 3.42% 3.46% 3.40%

(c) : Mixed

r

a − rl 2.44% 1.28% 3.11%

r

a 5.76% 4.96% 6.21%

r

l

3.31% 3.68% 3.11%

Table 1: Annualized total real returns on external assets and liabilities. In Panel (a) all

”Other changes” are allocated to valuations; in Panel (b) ”Other changes” are allocated to

financial flows; in Panel (c) ”Other changes” are allocated to valuations except for debt liabilities (corporate and government) and debt assets for which ”Other changes” are allocated

to financial flows. r

a

refers to the total return on gross assets, r

l

to the total return on gross

liabilities. Returns are quarterly (annualized).

Std. Dev. 1952:1-2009:4 1952:1-1972:4 1973:1-2009:4

r

a − rl 3.22% 2.18% 3.57%

r

a 4.11% 2.41% 4.82%

r

l 3.14% 3.18% 3.24%

Table 2: Standard Deviation of Quarterly Returns. The table reports the quarterly standard

deviation of total returns on gross external assets and liabilities.r

a

refers to the total return

on gross assets, r

l

to the total return on gross liabilities. ”Other changes” are allocated to

valuations

34
r

o

r

d

r

di re

(a) : valuations

1952:1-2009:4 -0.63% 4.71% 4.00% 4.11%

1952:1-1972:4 -2.02% 4.79% 2.24% 3.96%

1973:1-2009:4 0.16% 4.67% 4.99% 4.19%

(b) : financial flows

1952:1-2009:4 -1.37% 3.01% 1.99% 2.09%

1952:1-1972:4 -2.12% 3.98% 2.24% 3.59%

1973:1-2009:4 -0.94% 2.45% 1.85% 1.23%

(c) : mixed

1952:1-2009:4 -0.63% 3.01% 4.00% 4.11%

1952:1-1972:4 -2.02% 3.98% 2.24% 3.96%

1973:1-2009:4 0.16% 2.45% 4.99% 4.19%

Table 3: Excess Returns by Asset Class. In Panel (a) ”Other changes” are allocated to

valuations; in Panel (b) ”Other changes” are allocated to financial flows; in Panel (c) ”Other

changes” are allocated to valuations except for debt liabilities (corporate and government)

and debt assets for which ”Other changes” are allocated to financial flows. r

o

refers to the

annualized quarterly excess return on ‘other assets’; r

d

to ‘debt’; r

di to direct investment

and r

e

to equities.

Table 4 nagdp vagdp nagdp vagdp

1962:2-2009:4 1990:1-2009:4

vix -0.60∗∗ -0.05∗∗ -0.50∗∗ -0.09∗∗

(.11) (.02) (.09) (.03)

c -1.75 1.28∗∗ -1.75 2.52

(2.1) (.36) (2.1) (.70)

N 190 190 80 80

Adj. R2 0.14 0.04 0.26 0.11

Table 4: Exorbitant Duty over Time. The table reports the results from an OLS regression of

the U.S. net foreign asset position relative to GDP (nagdp) on the VIX index extended before

1986 with the volatility of the MSCI-ex US index. vagdp refers to the valuation component

(relative to GDP) defined as V At = NAt − NAt − 1 − F Xt where F At represents the net

financial flows in period t.

35
Parameters (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)

α 0.75 0.75 1 0.75 0.75 0.75 0.75

θ 1 1 1 0.5 1 1 1

σ

∗ 3 4 4 4 3 4 4

b 0.42 0.42 0.42

r

∗ 1 1 0.75

Equity Premium normal 0.12 0.13 0.17 0.09 4.08 4.52 4.52

(percent) disaster

Price Earning Ratio normal 12.02 12.02 12.02 12.02 15.64 16.00 16.00

disaster 10.58 10.54 10.54

T-bill excess return normal 0.04 0.03 0.08 0.00 0.04 -1.87 0.34

(percent) disaster 0.04 -0.36 0.10

External Excess Return normal 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.15 0.15

(percent) disaster 0.00 0.17 0.17

Trade Balance normal 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 -0.72 -0.72

(percent of output) disaster (for.) 0.00 1.38 1.38

Net Foreign Assets normal 0.00 0.00 -0.01 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

(percent of output) disaster (for.) 0.00 -14.48 -14.48

Net Debt Liabilities normal 0.00 7.54 -31.55 12.12 0.17 55.09 55.09

(percent of output) disaster (for.) 0.28 86.33 86.33

Table 5: Excess Returns and External Imbalances. Equity premium is defined as

ln Et



R ̄e

t+1

− ln Et

h

R

f

t+1i

where R ̄e

t+1 is the gross return on a claim to current and future

total endowment (global equity) and R

f

t+1 is the gross return on domestic real government

bonds. T-bill excess return is defined as ln Et

h

R

∗f

t+1i

− ln Et

h

R

f

t+1i

where R

∗f

t+1 is the gross

return on real foreign government bonds. All returns are measured in terms of tradable

goods. The domestic trade balance-output ratio is defined as y

T − cT



/



y

T + qyN



. The

net foreign asset position is defined as NAt = Wt − Vt where Wtis the value of a claim to

current and future domestic consumption: Wt = Ptct + Et[Mt,t+1Wt+1] and Vtis the value

of a claim to current and future domestic endowment, Vt = y

T

t + qty

N

t + Et

[Mt,t+1Vt+1].

Net debt liabilities are obtained by projecting the return on domestic wealth Rw onto the

return on global equity R ̄e and the return on domestic government debt Rfto reconstruct

the portfolio of domestic wealth.

36
0

20406080

100120140

1952

1954

1956

1958

1960

1962

1964

1966

1968

1970

1972

1974

1976

1978

1980

1982

1984

1986

1988

1990

1992

1994

1996

1998

2000

2002

2004

2006

2008

Other Government Debt Corporate Debt Direct Investment Equity

Figure 1: Gross Liabilities of the United States, percent of GDP

37
60

80

100120140

0

2040

1952

1954

1956

1958

1960

1962

1964

1966

1968

1970

1972

1974

1976

1978

1980

1982

1984

1986

1988

1990

1992

1994

1996

1998

2000

2002

2004

2006

2008

Gold Non Gold Debt Direct Investment Equity

Figure 2: Gross Assets of the United States, percent of GDP

38
20

30

40

0

10

20

19521954195619581960196219641966196819701972197419761978198019821984198619881990199219941996199820002002200420062008

Debt Liabilities Equity Liabilities Debt Assets Equity Assets

Figure 3: U.S. External Debt and Equity, percent of GDP

 10

 5

0

5

10

15

20

NA/GDP

 35

 30

 25

 20

 15

19521954195619581960196219641966196819701972197419761978198019821984198619881990199219941996199820002002200420062008

Figure 4: U.S. Net Foreign Asset Position, percent of GDP

39
0 30

0.40

0.50

0.60

0.70

0.80

0.90

0.00

0.10

0.20

0.30

19521954195619581960196219641966196819701972197419761978198019821984198619881990199219941996199820002002200420062008

liquid liabilities risky assets

Figure 5: Liquid liabilities (percent of total liabilities) and risky assets (percent of total

assets)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

 40

 30

 20

 10

196219641966196819701972197419761978198019821984198619881990199219941996199820002002200420062008

VIX NA/GDP

Figure 6: VIX and Net Foreign Asset Position (percent of US GDP)

40
Figure 7: Risk sharing with heterogenous risk aversion. The figure is drawn under the

following assumptions: Ey ̄ = 1, σ = 2, σ∗ = 5.

41
Figure 8: Riskfree excess return and optimal portfolio without disaster risk. See text for

parameters.

42
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44
Appendix

A Data

To illustrate our methodology, consider the following stock-flow equation, describing the

law of motion for a given class of assets i. Assets i include all the broad categories of assets

classified as in the balance of payments: portfolio debt (with a distinction between corporate

and government bonds whenever the data allow us to do so), direct investment, portfolio

equity investments, and other assets (bank loans and trade credit)

P Xi

t+1 = P Xit + F Xit+1 + V Xit+1 + OCit+1. (16)

In writing equation (16), we adopt the representation of the BEA: P Xi

t

represents the

position given by the BEA at the end of period t for assets i, F Xi

t

the financial flow during

period t, V Xi

t

the explicit valuation gain that can be attributed to currency and asset-price

movements, while OCi

t

is a residual item for ‘other changes’.34 For a given class of asset i,

we can compute an explicit total return R

ex,i

t+1 as



R

ex,i

t+1 − 1



P Xi

t = I

i

t+1 + V Xit+1,

where I

i

t+1 is the distributed yield, as measured by net income receipts for asset i. Summing

over all asset classes, measured (or explicit) total returns on the net foreign asset positions

are given by



R

ex

t+1 − 1



NF At = It+1 + V ALt+1

where It+1 is the net income balance (including interest income, distributed dividends and

direct investment earnings) and V ALt+1 is the sum across all assets of the net valuation

changes reported by the BEA (currency and asset prices).35

The final step is to go back to balance of payment accounting to insure consistency of

the data. Substituting financial flows using the fundamental Balance of Payment equation

gives us the international investment position at the end of period t + 1, NAt+1 as:36

NF At+1 = R

ex

t+1NF At + NXt+1 + SDt+1 + OCt+1

where SDtis the statistical discrepancy between trade and financial flows reported in the

balance of payments, NXtis the trade balance. Other changes OCt can represent either mismeasured valuations (as is assumed in Gourinchas and Rey (2007a)), mismeasured financial

34In the BEA’s IIP reconciliation table 3, other changes represent “changes in coverage due to year-toyear changes in the composition of reporting panels, primarily for bank and nonbank estimates, and to the

incorporation of survey results. Also includes capital gains and losses of direct investment affiliates and

changes in positions that cannot be allocated to financial flows, price changes, or exchange-rate changes.”

35According to the Balance of Payments manual, direct investment income in the current account includes

distributed earnings as well as the share of reinvested earnings. So there is an entry in the current account

for reinvested earnings and an offsetting entry in the financial account.

36For more details, see Appendix A. In these derivations, we ignore the capital account as well as unilateral

transfers. Both components are small components of the US balance of payments.

45
flows (as in Curcuru et al. (2008) and Forbes (2010)), mismeasured initial positions, or any

combination thereof.37

If we allocate OCt+1 to mismeasured valuations, we get a new estimate of total (implicit)

returns Rt+1 such that:

NF At+1 = Rt+1NF At + NXt+1 + SDt+1

(Rt+1 − 1) NF At = It+1 + V ALt+1 + OCt+1

If ‘other changes’ reflect mismeasured financial flows, the return on the net foreign position

is unchanged, but the Balance of Payments identity requires that net exports NXt are

mismeasured by a commensurate amount:38

NF At+1 = R

ex

t+1NF At + NX′t+1 + SDt+1

NX′

t+1 = NXt+1 + OCt+1

Finally, if other changes represent mismeasured initial positions, both initial position and

returns are mismeasured, with:

NF At+1 = R

′ex

t+1NF A′t + NXt+1 + SDt+1

NF A′

t = NF At +

OCt+1

(It+1 + V ALt+1) /NAt + 1



R

′ex

t+1 − 1



NF A′

t = It+1 + V ALt+1

B Characterization of the model

To be added.

37Lane and Milesi-Ferretti (2009) propose an allocation of these ‘other changes’ based on best judgement.

38See appendix A for a formal derivation.

46