The Missing Wealth of Nations: Are Europe and the U.S. net Debtors or net Creditors?*
研究发现官方统计严重低估了富裕国家的净外国资产头寸，因为大部分家庭资产存放在离岸避税天堂；考虑未记录资产后，欧元区从净债务国变为净债权国，美国净债务也显著减少。
Abstract This article shows that official statistics substantially underestimate the net foreign asset positions of rich countries because they fail to capture most of the assets held by households in offshore tax havens. Drawing on a unique Swiss data set and exploiting systematic anomalies in countries’ portfolio investment positions, I find that around 8% of the global financial wealth of households is held in tax havens, three-quarters of which goes unrecorded. On the basis of plausible assumptions, accounting for unrecorded assets turns the eurozone, officially the world’s second largest net debtor, into a net creditor. It also reduces the U.S. net debt significantly. The results shed new light on global imbalances and challenge the widespread view that after a decade of poor-to-rich capital flows, external assets are now in poor countries and debts in rich countries. I provide concrete proposals to improve international statistics.