This paper documents that ECB announcements increase the stock market volatility in the euro area (EA) on the same day. I consider two volatility measures from January 1998 to May 2019. First, a realized volatility measure uses intraday data for 8 different stock market indices. Second, a range...

We examine the effects of the Asset Purchase Programme (APP) gradually introduced by the European Central Bank from September 2014 onwards. Studying the short-term reaction of financial markets after APP press releases, we analyse the development of bond yields and spreads around these releases....

Bid-ask spreads using intraday data reveal significant sensitivity to European Central Bank (ECB) macro announcements. Effects are strongest for announcements that comprise unexpected information or a change in interest rates, and spreads rise sharply during the minutes surrounding interest rate...

This paper investigates the financial market effects of the ECB's communication on the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP). Using data for 10 euro area countries, we first analyse the impact of different communication channels such as press releases, ECB blog contributions, speeches and...

In the aftermath of the financial crisis in 2008 and over the course of the European debt crisis, the ECB announced a number of unconventional monetary policy implementations with the aim of restoring confidence in the functioning of the European financial system. This paper studies the effect...

To examine the Eurozone stock market reactions to European Central Bank (ECB) monetary policy announcement surprises, we study the effect of unexpected changes in the ECB's main refinancing rate on aggregate and sectorial Eurozone equity returns. We also analyse the results according to varying...

This paper investigates in how far monetary policy shocks impact Euro- pean asset markets, conditional on different risk states. It focuses on four different asset classes: equity of industrial firms, equity of banks, high-grade corporate bonds, and high-yielding corporate bonds. We distinguish...

This paper examines changes in acquirer and target companies' Credit Default Swap (CDS) spreads as a proxy for default risk around official mergers and acquisitions (M&A) announce-ments. Related literature extensively documents wealth effects triggered by M&A from the shareholders' perspective,...

This paper examines changes in Credit Default Swap (CDS) spreads as a proxy for default risk after M&A announcement for the companies involved. Existing literature extensively documents wealth effects triggered by M&A announcements from the shareholders' perspective, but there is limited...

In this study, we analyze the effects of sovereign credit rating reviews on national stock market performances in GIIPS and BRIC countries during the European Sovereign Debt Crisis of 2009-2013. Through an event study, we test the Null Hypothesis that cumulative abnormal returns on national...