In this paper we assess the merits of financial condition indices constructed using simple averages versus a more sophisticated alternative that uses factor models with time varying parameters. Our analysis is based on data for 18 advanced and emerging economies at a monthly frequency covering...

In this paper, we study the impact of Greek government-debt crisis events on European financial markets during the European sovereign debt crisis. We examine the effect of three categories of Greek government-debt crisis events in realized correlation and correlation jumps of government bonds,...

This is a chapter for a forthcoming volume Oxford Handbook of Financial Regulation (Oxford University Press 2014) (eds. Eilís Ferran, Niamh Moloney, and Jennifer Payne). It provides an overview of EU financial regulation from the first banking directive up until its most recent developments in...

This paper investigates the power of macroeconomic factors to explain euro area bond risk premia using (i) a big dataset (ii) the Elastic Net variable selection. We find that macroeconomic factors, in particular economic activity and sentiment indicators, explain 40% of the variability of risk...

The financial crisis has spread from private to public, from financial markets (2007-9) to sovereign states (2010 onwards). Concerns over ‘connectedness' – between banks, between banks and states, and hence between states – lies at the heart of the Eurozone debt crisis, just as it...

We examine the synchronization of European Union (EU) financial markets before and during the recent financial crisis. A DCC-GARCH framework captures dynamic correlations and a Markov-Switching framework captures regime changes. For the 27 nations of the EU, we formulate characteristics of the...

The paper gives an overview over issues concerning the role of financial stability in monetary policy. Historically, financial stability has figured highly among central banks' objectives, with policy measures ranging from interest rate stabilization to serving as a lender of the last resort....