The carry trade in industrialized and emerging markets

Abstract

I revisit the evidence on the profits associated with currency carry trades, explore its relationship to the uncovered interest parity (UIP) puzzle and the behavior of risk premia. I confirm earlier findings that carry trades are profitable, and that UIP fails for a group of industrialized-country currencies. Emerging market carry trades are also profitable, despite there being less "statistical" evidence against UIP. Because most emerging market currencies have persistently high interest rates, time variation in the risk premia of these currencies plays a smaller role in the average profits to emerging market carry trades. I find that those risk factors that seem able to summarize or explain the returns to carry trades in industrialized economies do not explain the returns to investing in emerging market currencies. Additionally, I find that BIS bank capital is relatively insensitive to the interest differentials that make carry trades attractive to investors.