A portfolio balance approach to the Canadian–U.S. exchange rate

An empirical portfolio balance model based on Branson and Henderson [Branson, W. H., & Henderson, D. W. (1985). The specification and influence of assets markets. In: Jones R. W., Kenen, P. B. (Eds.), Handbook of International Economics, Volume 2, Elsevier, Amsterdam] is specified for the Canadian–U.S. exchange rate over the floating exchange rate period. Empirical implementation reveals two cointegrating vectors that closely, although not perfectly, match the home and foreign asset demands of the theoretical model. Furthermore, the exchange rate is important in the error correction process. Finally, although the significance is quantitatively and statistically modest, a simplified version of the empirical model resulting from general-to-specific procedures is able to beat a random walk at some out-of-sample forecast horizons.