Opazo, Luis; Raddatz, Claudio; Schmukler, Sergio L.
Description:
Emerging economies have tried to promote
long-term debt because it reduces maturity mismatches and
the probability of crises. This paper uses unique evidence
from the leading case of Chile to study to what extent there
is domestic demand for long-term instruments. The authors
analyze monthly asset-level portfolios of Chilean
institutional investors (mutual funds, pension funds, and
insurance companies) and compare their maturity structure to
that of US bond mutual funds. Despite being thought to
invest long term, Chilean asset-management institutions
(mutual and pension funds) hold large amounts of short-term
assets relative to US mutual funds and Chilean insurance
companies. Short-termism is not driven by lack of instrument
availability or tactical behavior. Instead, it seems to be
explained by the desire to minimize inflation risk and, more
importantly, by manager incentives that tilt demand toward
short-term instruments. Extending the maturity of emerging
market debt may require reducing risk and reshaping investor incentives.