Working Paper 19
Bonds and Stocks: Twenty Years of Relative Market Size Across Ten Economies
October 2026
Abstract
We assemble a panel of bond market outstanding and equity market capitalization for ten economies from 2006 to 2025. Bond outstanding exceeds equity market cap in nine of ten; the United States is the sole large economy where equities overtook bonds, the ratio falling from 1.22 to 0.89. China's bond market grew twenty-four-fold to $28.7 trillion. Equities are two to seven times more volatile than bonds everywhere, so the ratio moves almost entirely on the equity leg. In 2008 equities fell 28 to 60 percent while bond outstanding grew, spiking every ratio. The government share of bonds rose in all ten countries.