Tae-Hoon Lim

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Working Papers

How do rising geopolitical tensions influence foreign equity investments by US institutional investors? (with Kyoung-Gon Kim)

Abstract:
This paper investigates how geopolitical risk and international political disagreements influence foreign equity investment decisions by US institutional investors. We find empirical evidence that rising geopolitical tensions adversely affect foreign equity investments and indirectly influence these investments based on the type of global supply chain participation between the destination countries and the US. Our comparative analysis reveals a heterogeneous impact of rising geopolitical tensions, with emerging markets experiencing sharper declines in foreign investments compared to advanced markets.

Selected Published Papers

How Important are Foreign Ownership Linkages for International Stock Returns? (with Sohnke M. Bartram, John M. Griffin, David T. Ng) Review of Financial Studies, 2015

Abstract:
We derive a foreign ownership return as the weighted average return of foreign stocks that are connected to a stock through common ownership. The foreign ownership return is of similar economic significance as traditional country and industry factors in explaining international stock returns. It is not related to omitted fundamentals or wealth effects but shifts substantially around ADR and index listings when the investor habitat changes. A decomposition shows that the foreign ownership return is driven by active reallocations of global institutions as opposed to fund flows from end investors. Our findings have important implications for international portfolio diversification.

Can Industry-level Trade Linkage Predict Stock Returns? Asia-Pacific Journal of Financial Studies, 2020

Abstract:
While international trade has become increasingly important over the years, little is known about the role of trade linkages in predicting future equity returns. In this paper, I test whether cross-predictability exists among trade-linked industries across international borders, and explore possible explanations. I find strong evidence of cross-border stock returns predictability among trade-linked industries. A trading strategy of buying industry portfolios whose trade-linked industry had high returns and shorting industry portfolios whose trade-linked industry had low return yields annualized return of 12%. Such returns cannot be explained by known risk factors and are different from industry momentum. I find some evidence against the leading explanation of information segmentation as the only reason for the cross-predictability and find support for illiquidity as a new channel of explanation.