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Although there is by now strong evidence that sovereign risk premia are driven by a common factor, little is known about the detailed linkages between sovereign bond markets. We employ the VAR method by Diebold and Yilmaz (2009) to analyse the strength and direction of bilateral linkages between...

We use the forecast-error variance decompositions from a VAR with daily sovereign bonds spreads since 2000 to detail the linkages between EU sovereign bond markets and banks over time. Using new summary statistics on the matrix of bilateral linkages, we show Spain is systemic for Europe. Its...

Legal simplification may improve the quality of institutions in industrialised countries that developed over-complex legal systems. In theory, this type of regulatory reform promotes economic efficiency, leading to higher levels of productivity and output. In this paper we use a Panel...

Endogenous mark-ups have been a matter of interest in macroeconomics, especially from the middle 1990’s onwards. However, the complexity of this class of models, does not allow general ualitative conclusions in most cases, and there is plenty of room for investigation, especially in the...

We empirically investigate the determinants of EMU sovereign bond yield spreads with respect to the German bund. Using panel data techniques, we examine the role of a wide set of potential drivers. To our knowledge, this paper presents one of the most exhaustive compilations of the variables...

This paper presents empirical evidence on the interrelationship that exists between the evolution of the Emerging Markets Bonds Index (EMBI) and some macroeconomic variables in seven Latin American countries; two of them (Ecuador and Panama), full dollarized. We make use of a Cointegrated Vector...

We design a system for improving the calculation of the price to be charged for an insurance product. Standard pricing techniques generally take into account the expected severity of potential losses. However, the severity of a loss can be extremely high and the risk of a severe loss is not...

In many important settings, subjects can show signicant heterogeneity in response to a stimulus or treatment". For instance, a treatment that works for the overall population might be highly ineective, or even harmful, for a subgroup of subjects with specic characteristics. Similarly, a new...