We study the public loan guarantee programs implemented in Italy in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. Guided by a theoretical model and relying on a unique loan-level dataset covering the period between December 2019 and March 2021, including both guaranteed and non-guaranteed loans, we...

This paper analyzes the risk-taking behavior of open-end corporate bond funds after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the policy interventions that followed it. Using monthly security-level information on portfolio holdings at the global level in 2020, we show that funds more exposed to...

This paper examines the impact of the pandemic outbreak on Italian insurers’ investment decisions between 2017 and 2020. By adopting a unique security-by-security holding dataset, we test how the investments of insurance companies in a single security varies when its price changes. Our...

We examine the Italian insurers’ investments between 2017 and 2020, focusing on the interplay between the companies’ balance sheet structure and the financial market conditions. Our findings suggest that insurers play a stabilizing role in financial markets by increasing their exposure to...