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Volatility in Italian sovereign spreads has increased since mid-2011. This paper finds that news on the euro area debt crisis and country specific events were important drivers of sovereign spreads. Movements in sovereign spreads affect CDS spreads and bond yields of Italian banks, and are transmitted rapidly to firm lending rates. Banks with lower capital ratios and higher nonperforming loans were found to be more sensitive to swings in sovereign spreads. Credit supply constraints due to bank funding shortages from the sovereign debt crisis were a major factor behind the lending slowdown in l

This paper explores how much of the movements in the sovereign spreads of Asian economies over the course of the global financial crisis has reflected shifts in (i) global risk aversion; (ii) country-specific risks, directly from worsening fundamentals, and indirectly from spillovers originating in other sovereigns and the uncertainty surrounding exchange rates. Earlier in the crisis, the increase in market-implied contagion led to higher Asian sovereign bond yield spreads over swaps. But, after the crisis, Asia's sovereign spreads normalized, despite the debt crisis in the euro area, reflecti

This paper assesses how financial market participants form their expectations about future government bond spreads. Using monthly survey forecasts for France, Italy and the UK between January 1993 and December 2011, we test whether respondents consider the expected evolution of the fiscal balance—and other economic fundamentals—as significant drivers of the expected bond yield differential over a benchmark German 10-year bond. Our main result is that a projected improvement of the fiscal outlook significantly reduces expected sovereign spreads. Overall, the findings suggest that credible fiscal plans affect expectations of market experts, reducing the pressure on sovereign bond markets.

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between six different dimensions of political risk in a country and its spread for a sample of 12 Latin American countries.


Design/methodology/approach
The methodology applied consists of panel estimators with fixed effects. In addition, a panel data model with instrumental variables is considered to tackle with potential problems of endogeneity in the model.


Findings
The results show there is a strong positive relationship between political risk and sovereign spread in Latin America, i.e., greater political risk is associated with greater sovereign spread. This effect is particularly significant when the political risk is associated with a weak rule of law or low-quality regulation in the country.


Research limitations/implications
The main limitation of this study concerns the potential risks of endogeneity which might exist between sovereign risk and political risk measures, which may not have been completely eliminated with the econometric methodology used.


Originality/value
This paper contributes to the literature of sovereign risk by studying the dimension of political risk in detail. Specifically, six dimensions of political risk are studied. Additionally, it provides empirical evidence, including the 2008 financial crisis period, regarding the determinants of spreads on Latin American economies.

I analyze the impact of austerity on sovereign spreads. To do so I propose a model with strategic sovereign default and nominal rigidities where the government follows fiscal rules, which are estimated from data. I first analyze the theoretical implications of the model and find that austerity can be self-defeating only when austerity packages are persistent and the economy is expected to be in a recession with high fiscal multipliers. I then calibrate the model using data from Spain and estimate the size and impact of fiscal policy shocks associated with austerity policies. I use the model to predict what would have happened to spreads and economic activity if Spain had continued to follow the pre-2010 fiscal rule instead of switching to the austerity track. I find that, relative to the counter-factual, austerity decreased sovereign spreads and debt-to-GDP ratios even when fiscal multipliers where higher than one during 2010-2013. Overall, the results indicate that the likelihood of facing self-fulfilling austerity episodes depends on the magnitude of fiscal multipliers but is generally low.