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Journal Article
The European Central Bank and the Eurosystem
The Eurosystem comprises the European Central Bank at its center as well as the national central banks of the twelve countries currently participating in monetary union. The European Central Bank was established in July 1998, six months before the beginning of Stage Three of economic and monetary union. Although decisions regarding monetary policy are made centrally by the Governing Council of the Eurosystem, the operational aspects of monetary policy-including open market operations, administration of the minimum reserve system, and management of the standing facilities-are undertaken in a ...
Working Paper
Household portfolios in the United States
This paper investigates the composition of households' assets and liabilities in the United States. Using aggregate and survey data, we document major trends in household portfolios in the past 15 years. We show that, despite the broad array of financial products available, the portfolio of the typical household remains fairly simple and safe, consisting of a checking account, savings account, and tax-deferred retirement account; in 1998, less than half of all households owned some form of stock. We use pooled data from the Survey of Consumer Finances to investigate determinants of portfolio ...
Discussion Paper
The International Role of the U.S. Dollar – 2025 Edition
For most of the last century, the preeminent role of the U.S. dollar in the global economy has been supported by the size and strength of the U.S. economy, its stability and openness to trade and capital flows, and strong property rights and the rule of law. As a result, the depth and liquidity of U.S. financial markets is unmatched, and there is a large supply of extremely safe dollar-denominated assets.
Discussion Paper
Measuring U.S. Cross-Border Securities Flows: Out With the Old, In with the New
As we have noted in the past, understanding the effects of capital flows across countries depends critically on accurate and comprehensive data. For the U.S., data on cross-border securities holdings and transactions are collected through the TIC (Treasury International Capital) data system.
Discussion Paper
Globalization and the Geography of Capital Flows
In this note, we document the large and growing distortions in official capital flows and investment statistics as a result of globalization. We provide a series of stylized facts about the extent and causes of these distortions, and also include data files containing U.S. portfolio holdings restated on a nationality basis to reflect the true exposures of U.S. investors.
Discussion Paper
Globalization and the Reach of Multinationals Implications for Portfolio Exposures, Capital Flows, and Home Bias
The residence-based framework of measuring international exposure is increasingly less informative, as a growing number of firms locate in low-tax jurisdictions and issue securities through offshore subsidiaries. This has clouded the view of capital flows and investor exposures from standard sources such as the IMF Balance of Payments and the Coordinated Portfolio Investment Survey.
Discussion Paper
The International Role of the U.S. Dollar
For most of the last century, the preeminent role of the U.S. dollar in the global economy has been supported by the size and strength of the U.S. economy, its stability and openness to trade and capital flows, and strong property rights and the rule of law. As a result, the depth and liquidity of U.S. financial markets is unmatched, and there is a large supply of extremely safe dollar-denominated assets.
Discussion Paper
Estimating U.S. Cross-Border Securities Flows: Ten Years of the TIC SLT
The Treasury International Capital (TIC) system collects cross-border securities positions and transactions data and is the primary source of information on foreign official and private demand for U.S. Treasuries and other U.S. securities, as well as for U.S. investment in foreign securities. As noted in earlier work, though, the TIC system currently collects data separately on holdings of securities (the monthly TIC SLT and the annual SHL/SHC collections) and on transactions, the TIC S, and these two data streams can be difficult to reconcile, making interpretation of movements in the data ...
Discussion Paper
"The International Role of the U.S. Dollar" Post-COVID Edition
For most of the last century, the preeminent role of the U.S. dollar in the global economy has been supported by the size and strength of the U.S. economy, its stability and openness to trade and capital flows, and strong property rights and the rule of law. As a result, the depth and liquidity of U.S. financial markets is unmatched, and there is a large supply of extremely safe dollar-denominated assets.
Discussion Paper
Measuring U.S. Cross-Border Securities Flows: New Data and A Guide for Researchers
Understanding the effects of capital flows across countries depends critically on accurate and comprehensive data. For the U.S., data on cross-border securities holdings and transactions are collected through the TIC (Treasury International Capital) data system. As we have previously noted, it has long been difficult to reconcile the TIC data on securities holdings with the TIC S transactions data (see Bertaut and Tryon (2007) and Bertaut and Judson (2014, 2022)).