We explore the impact of mortgage securitization on the international diversification of macroeconomic risk. By making mortgage-related risks internationally tradeable, securitization contributes considerably to better international consumption risk sharing: we find that countries with the most...

This paper analyzes how sovereign risk affects government's ability to smooth domestic risk when policy tools imperfectly discriminate foreign and domestic agents. The government cannot choose to pay differently foreign and domestic bond holders; however it can imperfectly discriminate against...

What are the effects of increased trade in goods and services on the trade balance? We study the effects of reducing transport costs in a Ricardian model with complete asset markets and find that this increases the volatility of the trade balance. This result applies regardless of whether supply...

What are the effects of increased trade in goods and services on the trade balance? We study the effects of reducing transport costs in a Ricardian model with complete asset markets and find that this increases the volatility of the trade balance. This result applies regardless of whether supply...

This paper explores the effects of nominal volatility and limited participation in asset markets on the risk sharing possibilities available to agents. When the set of financial assets is a decision of agents and is constrained by the resources available for investment, limited participation and...

Using the announcement of the first Greek bailout on April 11, 2010, we quantify significant spillover effects from sovereign to corporate credit risk in Europe. A ten percent increase in sovereign credit risk raises corporate credit risk on average by 1.1 percent after the bailout. These...

The first Greek bailout on April 11, 2010 triggered a significant reevaluation of sovereign credit risk across Europe. We exploit this event to examine the transmission of sovereign to corporate credit risk. A ten percent increase in sovereign credit risk raises corporate credit risk on average...

This article compares portfolio selection based on the downside risk sensitivity with portfolio selection based on Sharpe or Treynor ratios. Downside risk sensitivity (DRS) is given by an asset pricing model in which the downside and upside market returns are separated variables relative to...

We examine the relationship between private bank deposits and macro/fiscal risk in the euro area. We test three hypotheses: First, private bank deposits relative to Germany are determined by macro/fiscal risk factors. Second, this relationship is time-varying. Third, time-variation is driven by...

During the last decade, derivatives markets became an asset class of their own and influenced the financial landscape strongly. While the financial sector contributes positively to overall growth in many studies up the mid nineties, a positive contribution of the financial sector to economic...