Large exporters are simultaneously large importers. In this paper, we show that this pattern is key to understanding low aggregate exchange rate pass-through as well as the variation in pass-through across exporters. First, we develop a theoretical framework that combines variable markups due to strategic complementarities and endogenous choice to import intermediate inputs. The model predicts that fi rms with high import shares and high market shares have low exchange rate pass-through. Second, we test and quantify the theoretical mechanisms using Belgian fi rm-product-level data with information on exports by destination and imports by source country. We confi rm that import intensity and market share are the prime determinants of pass-through in the cross-section of fi rms. A small exporter with no imported inputs has a nearly complete pass-through of over 90 percent, while a fi rm at the 95th percentile of both import intensity and market share distributions has a pass-through of 56 percent, with the marginal cost and markup channels playing roughly equal roles. The largest exporters are simultaneously highmarket-share and high-import-intensity fi rms, which helps explain the low aggregate pass-through and exchange rate disconnect observed in the data.

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Importers, Exporters, and Exchange Rate Disconnect

In this paper we modify and extend the framework of Diebold and Yilmaz (2011) to quantify spillovers between sovereign credit markets and banks in the euro area. Spillovers are estimated recursively from a vector autoregressive model of daily changes in credit default swap (CDS) spreads with exogenous common factors. We account for interdependencies between sovereign and bank CDS spreads and derive generalized impulse response functions. Specifically, we assess the systemic effect of an unexpected shock to the creditworthiness of a sovereign or country-specific bank index on other sovereigns and bank CDSs between October 2009 and July 2012. Channels of shock transmission from or to sovereigns and banks are summarized in a Contagion Index and its four components: (i) among sovereigns, (ii) among banks, (iii) from sovereigns to banks, and (iv) from banks to sovereigns. We also highlight the impact of policy-related events on the Contagion Index.

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The dynamics of spillover effects during the European sovereign debt turmoil

Systemic risk in European sovereign debt markets: A CoVaR-copula approach

Credit default swaps (CDS) have been growing in importance in the global financial markets. However, their role has been hotly debated, in industry and academia, particularly since the credit crisis of 2007-2009. We review the extant literature on CDS that has accumulated over the past two decades. We divide our survey into seven topics after providing a broad overview in the introduction. The second section traces the historical development of CDS markets and provides an introduction to CDS contract definitions and conventions. The third section discusses the pricing of CDS, from the perspective of no-arbitrage principles, structural, and reduced-form credit risk models. It also summarizes the literature on the determinants of CDS spreads, with a focus on the role of fundamental credit risk factors, liquidity and counterparty risk. The fourth section discusses how the development of the CDS market has affected the characteristics of the bond and equity markets, with an emphasis on market efficiency, price discovery, information flow, and liquidity. Attention is also paid to the CDS-bond basis, the wedge between the pricing of the CDS and its reference bond, and the mispricing between the CDS and the equity market. The fifth section examines the effect of CDS trading on firms' credit and bankruptcy risk, and how it affects corporate financial policy, including bond issuance, capital structure, liquidity management, and corporate governance. The sixth section analyzes how CDS impact the economic incentives of financial intermediaries. The seventh section reviews the growing literature on sovereign CDS and highlights the major differences between the sovereign and corporate CDS markets. In the eight section, we discuss CDS indices, especially the role of synthetic CDS index products backed by residential mortgage-backed securities during the financial crisis.We close with our suggestions for promising future research directions on CDS contracts and markets.

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Credit Default Swaps: A Survey

Announcements of ECB unconventional programs: Implications for the sovereign spreads of stressed euro area countries

This paper investigates contagion between bank risk and sovereign risk in Europe over the period 2006-2011. Since this period covers various stages of the banking and sovereign crisis, it oers a fertile ground to analyze bank/sovereign risk spillovers. We de…ne contagion as excess correlation, i.e. correlation between banks and sovereigns over and above what is explained by common factors, using CDS spreads at the bank and at the sovereign level. Moreover, we investigate the determinants of contagion by analyzing bank-speci…c as well as country-speci…c variables and their interaction. We provide empirical evidence that various contagion channels are at work, including a strong home bias in bank bond portfolios, using the EBA's disclosure of sovereign exposures of banks. We …nd that banks with a weak capital and/or funding position are particularly vulnerable to risk spillovers. At the country level, the debt ratio is the most important driver of contagion.

/pdf/bank-sovereign-risk-spillovers-in-the-european-debt-crisis-50pl97nro3.pdf

Bank/sovereign risk spillovers in the European debt crisis ☆

This paper investigates contagion between bank risk and sovereign risk in Europe over the period 2006-2011. Since this period covers various stages of the banking and sovereign crisis, it offers a fertile ground to analyze bank/sovereign risk spillovers. We define contagion as excess correlation, i.e. correlation between banks and sovereigns over and above what is explained by common factors, using CDS spreads at the bank and at the sovereign level. Moreover, we investigate the determinants of contagion by analyzing bank-specific as well as country-specific variables and their interaction. We provide empirical evidence that various contagion channels are at work, including a strong home bias in bank bond portfolios, using the EBA's disclosure of sovereign exposures of banks. We find that banks with a weak capital and/or funding position are particularly vulnerable to risk spillovers. At the country level, the debt ratio is the most important driver of contagion.

/pdf/bank-sovereign-risk-spillovers-in-the-european-debt-crisis-181a5d64vd.pdf

Bank/Sovereign Risk Spillovers in the European Debt Crisis

This paper uses Bayesian model averaging (BMA) techniques to examine the driving factors of equity returns of U.S. financial institutions. The main advantage of BMA is accounting for model uncertainty. For the period 1986-2010, we fi nd that the most likely model explaining banking sector returns has a probability of 25% only. We also show that the optimal model changes considerably over time and across types of BHCs. The market, high-minus-low (HML) Fama-French factor, and real estate factor are part of most speci fications. Finally, we highlight some implications for banking studies using measures of idiosyncratic volatility, abnormal returns for market betas.

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Model Uncertainty and Systematic Risk in US Banking

This paper offers evidence that bank managers adjust key strategic variables following a risk and/or valuation signal. Banks receive a risk signal when they have a substantially higher volatility compared to the best performing bank(s) with similar business model characteristics, and a valuation signal when they are undervalued relative to the average bank with similar characteristics (using respectively a stochastic frontier and multiplicative heteroscedasticity model). We show that the likelihood that banks receive a risk and/or valuation signal increases with opaqueness, managerial discretion and specialization. Next, we show, using a partial adjustment model, that bank managers adjust the long-term target value of key strategic variables and the speed of adjustment towards those targets following a risk and/or negative valuation signal. We interpret this as evidence of stock market influencing. Finally, we show that our results are unlikely to be driven by indirect influencing by regulators, subordinated debtholders, or wholesale depositors.

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Do Stock Markets Discipline US Bank Holding Companies: Just Monitoring, or also Influencing?

This paper uses Bayesian Model Averaging to examine the driving factors of equity returns of US Bank Holding Companies. BMA has as an advantage over OLS that it accounts for the considerable uncertainty about the correct set (model) of bank risk factors. We find that out of a broad set of 12 risk factors only the market, real estate, and high-minus-low Fama–French factors are reliably related to US bank stock returns over the period 1986–2010. Other factors are either only relevant over specific subperiods or for subsets of bank holding companies. We discuss the implications of our findings for empirical banking research.

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Valerie De Bruyckere

Papers

Bank/sovereign risk spillovers in the European debt crisis ☆

Bank/Sovereign Risk Spillovers in the European Debt Crisis

Model Uncertainty and Systematic Risk in US Banking

Do Stock Markets Discipline US Bank Holding Companies: Just Monitoring, or also Influencing?

Model uncertainty and systematic risk in US banking