This paper builds a general test of contagion in financial markets based on bivariate correlation analysis – a test that can be interpreted as an extension of the normal correlation theorem. Contagion is defined as a structural break in the data generating process of rates of return. Using a...

This paper builds a general test of contagion in financial markets based on bivariate correlation analysis - a test that can be interpreted as an extension of the normal correlation theorem. Contagion is defined as a structural break in the data generating process of rates of return. Using a...

This paper uses the celebrated no-arbitrage affine Gaussian term structure model applied to index-linked and standard government bonds to derive expected inflation rates and the corresponding inflation risk premia, in the euro area and in the United States. After estimating the model using...

We test whether the sharp increase in sovereign spreads of Euro area countries with respect to Germany observed after the burst of the Greek crisis on October 2009 is due to a deterioration of the macroeconomic and fiscal scenarios, or to some form of financial contagion. More in detail, we...

The no-arbitrage affine Gaussian term structure model is used for analyzing the impact of macroeconomic surprises on the nominal and the real term structure, in the euro area and in the United States. We find that nominal rates are impacted by surprises on economic growth, labour market and...

We test whether the sharp increase in sovereign spreads of euro area countries with respect to Germany after the explosion of the Greek crisis was due to deteriorating macroeconomic and fiscal fundamentals or to some form of financial contagion. Our analysis includes indicators of domestic and...

The no-arbitrage affine Gaussian term structure model is used to analyse the impact of macroeconomic surprises on the nominal and the real term structure in the euro area and in the United States. We find that nominal rates are affected by surprises in economic growth, the labour market and the...

Term structure models are routinely used by central banks to assess the impact of their communication on market participants' views of future interest rate developments. However, recent studies have pointed out that traditional term structure models can provide misleading indications when policy...

We study the dynamics of risk premiums on the German bond market, employing no-arbitrage term-structure models with both observable and unobservable state variables, recently popularized by Ang and Piazzesi (2003). We conduct a specification analysis based on a new canonical representation for...

This paper analyzes the Risk Appetite Index (RAI), a measure of investors' risk aversion proposed by Kumar and Persaud (2001, 2002). We show that the RAI distinguishes between risk and risk aversion only under theoretically restrictive assumptions on the distribution of returns and the shocks...