We show that international consumption risk sharing is significantly improved by capital flows, especially portfolio investment. Concomitantly, we show that poor institutions hamper risk sharing, but to an extent that decreases with openness. In particular, risk sharing ist prevalent even among...

"The dramatic increase in gross stock of foreign assets and liability has revived interest in the portfolio balance theory of international investment. Evidence on the validity of this theory has always been scarce and inconclusive. The current paper derives testable empirical implications from...