Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Publication
    On the term structure of liquidity in the European sovereign bond market
    The paper provides a high-frequency analysis of liquidity dynamics in the eurozone sovereign bond market over tranquil and crisis periods. We study time series of liquidity across the yield curve using high-frequency data from MTS, one of Europe’s leading electronic fixed-income trading platforms. We document flight-to-liquidity effects as investors prefer to trade on shorter-term benchmarks during liquidity dry-ups. We provide evidence of significant commonalities in spread and depth liquidity proxies which are weaker during the crisis period for both core and periphery economies although periphery countries display higher commonality than core countries during the crisis. We show that illiquidity of the periphery countries plays an important role in market dynamics and Granger causes illiquidity, volatility, returns, and CDS spreads across the maturity spectrum in both calm and crisis periods. Liquidity is priced both as a characteristic and as a risk factor even when controlling for credit risk, pointing to liquidity’s systematic dimension and importance.
      454Scopus© Citations 16
  • Publication
    Measuring and Analyzing Liquidity and Volatility Dynamics in the Euro-Area Government Bond Market
    (World Scientific Publishing, 2019-07-12) ;
    This chapter examines the impact the European sovereign debt market crisis had on liquidity and volatility dynamics and their interdependencies in the eurozone government bond market. In particular, we examine the impact across different countries and across different maturity buckets within individual countries. A comprehensive high-frequency dataset from MTS, Europe's premier electronic fixed-income trading market, is employed to construct a variety of microstructure liquidity and volatility measures. We analyze important trends in these measures over both tranquil and crisis periods. Additionally, we study time-varying correlations as well as the intertemporal interactions of liquidity proxies with volatility and returns. Our findings provide useful insights to regulators and policy makers on the relative strengths and weaknesses of domestic and global financial systems.
      514