We examine the impact of eurozone membership on sovereign creditworthiness over the period 1996-2017. We find that: (a …) membership significantly improved sovereign creditworthiness, on average by well over one ratings notch, over this period; (b …) the ratings boost was significantly higher in the pre-crisis period (with countries in the periphery of the eurozone being …

Since the onset of the eurozone sovereign debt crisis, credit risk spreads in Europe have diverged. Despite this … divergence, credit risk comoves strongly within certain country groups such as the eurozone periphery. We seek to answer what the … eurozone countries during the sovereign debt crisis. We find strong evidence for both fundamentals and nonfundamentals based …