Economic Exposure Indexes: Investable Options for a Global World in Flux

The seemingly inexorable globalization trend has been halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, heightened geopolitical tension, the war in Ukraine, and inflation on a global scale. Although it is unimaginable to expect a fully deglobalized world, structural trends toward localization now exist. The impact of global and local macro drivers will impact business depending on their dominant business exposure. Investors who want to capture these differences that may result in divergent trends will need a targeted approach that segments companies within a country or region by their revenue exposure to global or local drivers. Precisely defined global and domestic economic exposure indexes allow investors to supplement or diversify their country/regional exposure, or take tactical investment actions to add alpha.