The theoretical literature remains inconclusive on whether changes in bank exposure towards the domestic sovereign have an adverse effect on the sovereign risk position via a diabolic loop in the sovereign-bank nexus or reduce perceived default risk by acting as a disciplinary device for the...

This study explores the risk premia embedded in sovereign default swaps using a term structure model. The risk premia remunerate investors for unexpected changes in the default intensity. A number of interesting results emerge from the analysis. First, the risk premia contribution to the spreads...

Expectations of risky bond payments are unobservable and recovery rates for sovereigns are hard to estimate because they have no contractual claims to defined assets and samples of defaults are limited. A geometric version of credit spread is used to derive expected payments, dependent on...

This paper explores the economic determinants of market-assessed sovereign risk of members of the European monetary union. The empirical work is innovative in its Merton structural specification of appropriate inputs. It provides a theoretical background for the empirical investigation of...