The Flight to Safety and International Risk Sharing
We study a business cycle model of the international monetary system featuring a time-varying demand for safe dollar bonds, greater risk-bearing capacity in the U.S. than the rest of the world, and nominal rigidities. A flight to safety generates a dollar appreciation and decline in global output. Dollar bonds thus command a negative risk premium and the U.S. holds a levered portfolio of capital financed in dollars. We quantify the effects of safety shocks and heterogeneity in risk-bearing capacity for global macroeconomic volatility; U.S. external adjustment; and policy transmission, as of dollar swap lines.
Published Versions
Rohan Kekre & Moritz Lenel, 2024. "The Flight to Safety and International Risk Sharing," American Economic Review, vol 114(6), pages 1650-1691.