The Benefits of International Diversification
The Benefits of International Diversification

Author: Lorne N. Switzer

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 43

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This paper examines the benefits of international diversification for US investors, while accounting for market development, corporate governance, market cap effects, and structural change across countries over period August 1996-July 2013. Improved risk adjusted returns are obtained from a diversified portfolio consisting of a mix of developed and emerging countries. Additionally, we find that diversification benefits are not significant for most of the small-cap foreign assets when an investor already holds position in corresponding countries large-cap assets. Diversification benefits based on the governance effectiveness of a country's companies are not ubiquitous. We find that economically significant improvements in risk-return performance can be attained by adding large caps of developed countries with high and low overall Governance Metrics International (GMI) ratings and large and small caps of emerging countries with low overall GMI ratings to the investment universe containing the assets of common law developed countries. However, diversification benefits are economically significant only for large and small caps of low GMI emerging countries when short selling is not allowed.

Shareholder Benefits and Firm Performance
Shareholder Benefits and Firm Performance

Author: Shavin Malhotra

Publisher:

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 23

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Previous research on international mergers and acquisitions has not looked at the valuation consequences of international acquisitions by firms from a developing economy. This study examines the announcement effect and the post-acquisition long-term performance of 96 Indian international acquisitions of U.S. firms made in the period 1999-2005. The study also explores the impact of the Indian acquiring firms' U.S. acquisitions on their underlying operating variables, and risk diversification. We find that while the international acquisition announcements by Indian firms create significant short-term shareholders' wealth, in the long-run international acquisitions have a negative impact on the shareholders' wealth. We also find a significant decrease in the acquiring firms' financial profitability ratios, though there is an evidence of risk-reduction due to global diversification.

International Diversification at Home and Abroad
International Diversification at Home and Abroad

Author: Fang Cai

Publisher:

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 38

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

It is an established fact that investors favor the familiar%u2014be it domestic securities or, within a country, the securities of nearby firms%u2014and avoid investments that would provide the greatest diversification benefits. While we do not rule out familiarity as an important driver of portfolio allocations, we provide new evidence of investors%u2019 international diversification motive. In particular, our analysis of the security-level U.S. equity holdings of foreign and domestic institutional investors indicates that institutional investors reveal a preference for domestic multinationals (MNCs), even after controlling for familiarity factors. We attribute this revealed preference to the desire to obtain %u201Csafe%u201D international diversification. We then show that holdings of domestic MNCs are substantial and, after accounting for this home-grown foreign exposure, that the share of %u201Cforeign%u201D equities in investors%u2019 portfolios roughly doubles, reducing (but not eliminating) the observed home bias.

Multinationals and the Gains from International Diversification
Multinationals and the Gains from International Diversification

Author: Patrick F. Rowland

Publisher:

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 74

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

One possible explanation for home bias is that investors may obtain indirect international diversification benefits by investing in multinational firms rather than by investing directly in foreign markets. This paper employs mean-variance spanning tests to examine the diversification potential of multinational firms and foreign market indices for investors domiciled in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. We find that in most countries and most time periods, the portfolio of domestic stocks spans the risk and return opportunities of a portfolio that includes domestic and multinational stocks. However, there is weak evidence that U.S. multinationals provided global diversification benefits in the full 1984-92 sample and in the post-1987 subsample. We also find that the addition of foreign market indices to a domestic portfolio - inclusive of multinationals - provides diversification benefits. The economic importance of the shift of the portfolio frontier - measured as the utility gain from diversification - varies considerably from market to market and often reflects the benefits of large short positions in certain markets.