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Abstract We investigate how European policy initiatives influenced market assessments of sovereign default risk and banking sector fragility during the sovereign debt crisis in four adversely affected countries — Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Italy. We focus on three broad groups of policies: (a) ECB policy actions (monetary and financial support), (b) EU programs (financial and fiscal rules as well as financial support in crisis countries), and (c) domestic austerity programs. We measure immediate market impact effects: what policies changed risk perceptions, using CDS spreads on sovereign bonds and banks in this assessment. We employ dynamic panel and event study methodologies in the empirical work. We find that a number of programs initially stabilized sovereign and bank bond markets (e.g. Outright Monetary Transactions program), although announcement and implementation impacts on markets differed in some cases (e.g. second Covered Market Bond Program). Actions designed to shore up sovereign markets often lowered risk assessments in bank bond markets and policies designed to ensure safety and soundness of the European banking system in some cases significantly impacted sovereign debt markets. Finally, a number of policies designed to stabilize markets had surprisingly little immediate impact on either sovereign or bank bond market risk assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper investigates the relationship between sovereign bond holdings of banks and refinancing operations by the ECB for countries in the euro area. We use data collected by Bruegel as well as a new dataset compiled from the annual statements of national central banks to estimate panel regression models. Our findings support the hypothesis that the ECB's refinancing operations have increased resident banks' exposure to domestic sovereign bonds. This is in line with the moral suasion theory advanced in the literature. These results strengthen the case for regulatory changes aimed at reducing the sensitivity of banks to sovereign risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the causality between refinancing operations of the ECB and the stability of the European banking sector during the recent crisis. We hypothesize that causality may run both ways. The ECB’s role in safeguarding the stability of the financial system suggests that refinancing operations may contribute to greater stability. Alternatively, instability in the banking sector may stimulate banks to tap liquidity at the ECB. Using country-level data on refinancing operations and bank CDS rates, we find a positive relationship between bank instability and liquidity uptake. High bank CDS rates are significantly related to the decision to tap liquidity, yet the liquidity uptake itself does little to bring these rates down quickly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we explore the dynamic relationship between public debt and economic growth by using a non-parametric approach based on data symbolization and clustering methods. The study uses annual data of general government consolidated gross debt-to-GDP ratio and gross domestic product for sixteen countries between 1977 and 2015. Using symbolic sequences, we introduce a notion of distance between the dynamical paths of different countries. Then, a Minimal Spanning Tree and a Hierarchical Tree are constructed from time series to help detecting the existence of groups of countries sharing similar economic performance. The main finding of the study appears for the period 2008–2016 when several countries surpassed the 90% debt-to-GDP threshold. During this period, three groups (clubs) of countries are obtained: high, mid and low indebted countries, suggesting that the employed debt-to-GDP threshold drives economic dynamics for the selected countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the reaction of the Euro's value against major currencies to sovereign rating announcements from Moody's, S&P and Fitch CRAs during the Eurozone debt crisis in 2010–2012 based on event study methodology combined with GARCH models. We also analyze how the yields of French, Italian, German and Spanish government long-term bonds were affected by CRA announcements. Our results reveal that CRA downgrades, watchlist and outlook announcements had no impact on the value of the Euro currency but increased exchange rate volatility. At the same time, downgrades as well as negative outlook announcements increased the yields of French, Italian, and Spanish bonds and even affected the German bond's yields. This shows that the monetary union has led to a breakdown of the consequences of the rating shocks between currency value and sovereign bond yields. The reason is that part of the rating shock is absorbed by an internal repricing of sovereign bonds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This empirical study investigates whether people's concerns about the Euro currency affect their life satisfaction. A minority of very concerned individuals appear to be unhappy, which cannot be explained by personality or other observable factors typically affecting well-being. As a novelty, this investigation exploits exogenous variation in reported concerns by using the intensity of media coverage on the euro crisis with its extraordinary events throughout the year 2011 as an instrument. Results from the application of several empirical approaches confirm that there is an effect from being concerned about the euro on people's satisfaction with life. A potential explanation is that political beliefs and euro-skeptic attitudes are at play and may trigger unhappiness as a consequence of a perceived lack of representation in German politics. In line with this argument, a regional analysis links the variation in unhappiness among concerned citizens to the actual votes for Germany's first major anti-euro party in the subsequent federal elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article identifies and tests a mechanism to explain how exposure to financial bailouts accounts for the electoral decline of establishment parties. Given the limitation of economic voting theories to fully explain the electoral shifts observed in Europe from 2010 onwards, this research develops a different explanation. Citizens who were exposed to the macroeconomic conditions of financial bailouts not only observed the consequences of drastic fiscal adjustment packages but, possibly, also underwent a process of political learning. By putting economic responsibility before policy responsiveness, establishment parties showed citizens that voting for these parties did not necessarily implied policy change. This political learning led some citizens not to vote for these parties in subsequent elections. These theoretical claims are tested using individual data from the sixth round of the European Social Survey as well as data from European and parliamentary elections observed between 1991 and 2019 in eleven countries of the Eurozone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]