I use detailed data on bond and swap positions of pension funds and insurance companies (P&Is) in the Netherlands to study demand shifts and their causal effect on government bond yields. In particular, I exploit a reform in the regulatory discount curve that makes liabilities more sensitive to...

This study investigates herding behaviour exhibited by Dutch pension funds in the sovereign bond market. It uses a unique dataset on sovereign bond holdings of pension funds, mutations and transactions between December 2008 and December 2014. It covers 67 large Dutch pension funds that invest in...

Using recovery plan data of 213 underfunded Dutch pension funds for the years 2011, 2012 and 2013, discrete choice models are estimated describing pension funds' choices between three recovery measures: higher contributions, no indexation, and pension cuts. The estimation results suggest,...

Using nascent euro area green bond markets as an experimental set-up, we are able to show that home bias is a universal phenomenon. Exploiting dynamics around the scarcity of an asset class, we show that investors tend to turn to their domestic market as soon as their home market becomes...

This paper models policy responses to changes in solvency by Dutch occupational pension funds using a unique panel dataset containing the balance sheets of all registered pension funds in the Netherlands over a period of 15 years (1993-2007). The model describes how nominal pension rights are...

Using transaction level data of Dutch fixed income markets, we analyze the drivers of market liquidity between 2014 and 2016. Our results differ significantly across asset classes and during more volatile periods. Policy interventions, such as favourable treatment in liquidity regulation...

Using new regulatory data, this paper contributes to the growing literature on derivatives markets and (systemic) risk, by providing a first account of the Dutch CDS market, investigating the factors that drive buying and selling of credit protection ('flow-of risk'), and analysing the impact of...

We study the effect on savings of the Deposit Guarantee Scheme (DGS) reform in the Netherlands. We study savings allocation in a DGS environment and we empirically investigate how bank accounts allocations of the Dutch households changed as a response to the reform. Moreover, we highlight the...

This paper analyzes the robustness of standard techniques for risk analysis, with a special emphasis on the Basel III risk measures. We focus on the difference between value-at-risk and expected shortfall, their small sample properties, the scope for manipulating risk measures and how estimation...

The media influence our perception of reality and, since we act on those perceptions, reality is in turn affected by the media. News is a rich source of information, but, in addition, the sentiment (i.e., the tone of financial news) tells us how others perceive the financial system and how that...