Sovereign risk premia in the European government bond market

Kerstin Bernoth (), Juergen von Hagen () and Ludger Schuknecht ()

No 369, Working Paper Series from European Central Bank

Abstract: This paper provides a study of bond yield differentials among EU eurobonds issued between 1991 and 2002. Interest differentials between bonds issued by EU countries and Germany or the USA contain risk premia which increase with the debt, deficit and debt-service ratio and depend positively on the issuer’s relative bond market size. Global investors’ attitude towards credit risk, measured as the yield spread between low grade US corporate bonds and government bonds, also affects bond yield spreads between EU countries and Germany/USA. The start of the European Monetary Union had significant effects on the bond pricing of the member states.

Keywords: asset pricing; determination of interest rates; fiscal policy; government debt. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G12 E43 E62 H63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec, nep-fin, nep-fmk, nep-mac and nep-pbe
Date: Written 2004-06
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20040369

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