Information and capital flows revisited: The Internet as a determinant of transactions in financial assets

This paper investigates the determinants of international transactions in financial assets empirically. We extend the gravity model in Portes et al. (2000) by introducing an internet variable. Using cross-country panel data on the portfolio flows between the US and other countries from 1990 to 2008, we found that the Internet turns out to mitigate the information asymmetries and thus increases cross-border portfolio flows between countries.