International Capital Markets and Foreign Exchange Risk

Relations between foreign exchange risk premia, exchange ratevolatility, and the volatilities of the pricing kernels forthe underlying currencies, are derived under the assumptionof integrated capital markets. As predicted, the volatilityof exchange rates is significantly associated with the estimatedvolatility of the relevant pricing kernels, and foreign exchangerisk premia are significantly related to both the estimatedvolatility of the pricing kernels and the volatility of exchangerates. The estimated foreign exchange risk premia mostly satisfyFama’s (1984) necessary conditions for explaining theforward premium puzzle, but the puzzle remains in several caseseven after taking account of the pricing kernel volatilities.