Book Description

This dissertation examines the determinants of portfolio inflows to emerging market economies with a special focus on Korea. Chapter 1, "The Determinants of Disaggregated Capital Inflows to Korea", studies the key factors in determining portfolio investment flows to Korea from four separate investment groups: global banks, mutual funds, securities companies, and pension companies. I sort the total portfolio investment flows by each investment group such as global banks, mutual funds, securities companies, and pension companies. The US industrial production index, TED spread, and VIX are included as push factors and the Korean industrial production index, Korean bond rate, Korean stock index, and exchange rate are considered as pull factors. From the structural VAR model with dummy variables, this paper finds that portfolio investment flows to Korea are more affected by push factors during the crisis while they are more dependent on pull factors after the crisis. Portfolio investment flows to the stock market are affected mainly by the domestic stock market and global risk appetite while portfolio investment flows to the bond market react more strongly to US output growth and the domestic interest rate. Finally, this paper finds that the properties of capital inflows from each institution are quite different. For example, securities and mutual funds are more responsive to the stock market index, while insurance and pension companies are more sensitive to domestic output growth. Chapter 2, "The Determinants of Capital Inflows from Each Country", analyzes the determinants of portfolio flows to Korea using portfolio flows from each economy to Korea as the dependent variable. For the empirical model, the investor country factor was added to the existing push-pull approach, and a panel VAR model was used as the estimation method. The results suggest that investor country factors such as shocks on the interest rate and stock market in the investor country are the most important determinants to portfolio flows from advanced economies (AEs) while pull factors of recipient countries mainly drive the portfolio flows from emerging market economies (EMEs). The impact on the stock market is the dominant factor during the Fed's expansionary monetary policy, while the effects of the interest rate are the most important factor after the end of the QE. The results also show that portfolio flows from AEs respond positively to the impact of the investor country's stock market, while those from EMEs respond negatively. This study supports recent findings that the impact of the drivers on the capital flows is dependent on economic conditions and is time-varying. Chapter 3, "The International Spillovers of US Monetary Policy on Capital Flows to Emerging Market Economies", studies the impact of the US Fed's monetary policy on portfolio flows to the emerging economies, differentiating across the investor economies and type of flows. This paper also compares the effects of US monetary policy before and after the end of Quantitative Easing (QE). The results show that equity flows were retrenched to the US and AEs in response to the announcement of QE1 while the total impact of the Quantitative Easing increased the capital inflows to the emerging markets from the advanced economies. This chapter also finds that the response of portfolio flows in response to US monetary policy is conditional on the stance of US monetary policy. The findings build a bridge on the recent controversy over determinants of capital inflows by showing that QE has a significant impact on the capital inflows to EMEs, and its effects are related to the business cycle.