TY  - JOUR
AU  - Lane, Philip R
AU  - Milesi-Ferretti, Gian Maria
TI  - A Global Perspective on External Positions
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 11589
PY  - 2005
Y2  - September 2005
DO  - 10.3386/w11589
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11589
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11589.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Philip Lane
Central Bank of Ireland
Dublin 2
Ireland
E-Mail: plane@tcd.ie

Gian Maria Milesi Ferretti
International Monetary Fund
Western Hemisphere Department, HQ1-10-120
700 19th Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20431
Tel: 202 623-7441
Fax: 202 589-7441
E-Mail: gmilesiferretti@imf.org
M1  - published as Philip R. Lane, Gian Maria Milesi-Ferretti. "A Global Perspective on External Positions," in Richard H. Clarida, editor, "G7 Current Account Imbalances: Sustainability and Adjustment" University of Chicago Press (2007)

AB  - The paper highlights the increased dispersion in net external positions in recent years, particularly among industrial countries. It provides a simple accounting framework that disentangles the factors driving the accumulation of external assets and liabilities (such as trade imbalances, investment income flows, and capital gains) for major external creditors and debtors. It also examines the factors driving the foreign asset portfolio of international investors, with a special focus on the weight of U.S. liabilities in the rest of the world's stock of external assets. Finally, it relates the empirical evidence to the current debate about the roles of portfolio balance effects and exchange rate adjustment in shaping the external adjustment process.
ER  -