期刊名称：Euro Area Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Statistics
印刷版ISSN：1830-3420
电子版ISSN：1830-3439
出版年度：2016
出版社：European Central Bank
摘要：This paper analyses international patterns of bilateral portfolio equity and debt investmentin a gravity model framework. We contribute to the literature by exploring the role ofvirtual proximity – measured by bilateral internet hyperlinks between countries – as a novelproxy for cross-border information flows and cultural proximity more generally. Our findingsshow that bilateral portfolio investment is significantly affected by virtual proximity, indicatingthat countries which are more closely connected in terms of web content are more integratedfinancially. The effect is stronger for equity than for debt investment, highlighting the largerinformation sensitivity of equity investments, and is largest for investments among advancedeconomies. Moreover, including virtual proximity in estimations reduces the importance oftraditionally-used proxies for information asymmetries and cultural proximity.
关键词：International capital flows; portfolio investment; cultural proximity; hyperlinks;information; internet
