A measure of redenomination risk.
Date: 2015-07-22
Institutions: European Central Bank
Subjects: econometrics, economic integration, financial market, international finance

Working Paper Series 

Roberto A. De Santis  

A measure of 
redenomination risk 

1785 / April 2015 

Note: This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the European Central Bank (ECB). 
The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the ECB 

 
Abstract

Euro redenomination risk is the risk that a euro asset will be redenominated into a

devalued legacy currency. We propose a time-varying, country-speci…c market perception

of intra-euro area redenomination risk measure, de…ned as the quanto CDS of a member

country relative to the quanto CDS of a benchmark member country. Focusing on Italy,

Spain and France and using Germany as benchmark, we show that the redenomination risk

shocks, de…ned as the unexplained component of the market perception of redenomination

risk orthogonal to exchange rate, global, regional and liquidity risks, signi…cantly a¤ect

sovereign yield spreads, with Italy and Spain being the countries most adversely a¤ected,

followed by France. Finally, foreign redenomination risk shocks spill over and above local

redenomination risk shocks, corroborating the fact that this risk is systemic.

Keywords: Redenomination risk, sovereign credit spreads, systemic risk, euro.

JEL classi…cation: C32, F36, G12, G15

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 1Non-Technical Executive Summary

On 24 July 2012, the sovereign yield spreads of Italian and Spanish sovereign bonds - as

measured by sovereign yield relative to the overnight index swap (OIS) rate - a risk-free rate

proxy - reached record highs. The same spreads had been about 200 basis points lower only few

months earlier in March 2012. On 26 July 2012, Mario Draghi, President of the European Cen-

tral Bank (ECB), in a speech at an investment conference in London said that a “convertibility

risk” explained this phenomenon, preventing the smooth functioning of the ECB’s monetary

policy across national borders inside the euro area and acknowledging that …nancial markets

were pricing the risk of break-up. Therefore, he pledged to do "whatever it takes" to protect

the euro area from collapse.

Can we measure currency redenomination risk, that is the compensation demanded by mar-

ket participants for the risk that a euro asset is being redenominated into a devalued legacy

currency?

In this paper, we employ US dollar and euro denominated CDS spreads, which are typically

very liquid. Speci…cally, we use quanto CDS, namely the di¤erence between the CDS quotes in

US dollar and euros. The di¤erential between US dollar and euro denominated CDS spreads

is expected to be positive for Italian and Spanish sovereign contracts in the course of the

…rst half of 2012, because getting paid o¤ in euro-denominated credit event protection seemed

increasingly less attractive. Should for example Italy declare a credit event, euro 10 million

worth of protection on an Italian credit event would be worth much less after the event as a

consequence of the devaluation of the euro or, if the euro would no longer exist, as a result of the

devaluation of the “new” currency. This led to a major drop in demand for EUR-denominated

Italian (and other European) protection.

A credit event does not automatically imply the break-up of the euro area, as in the Greek

case in March 2012. Therefore, the quanto CDS, which measures the risk associated with

the depreciation against the US dollar and not the intra-euro area currency risk, is not a

su¢ cient measure. We argue that the di¤erence between the quanto CDS for Italy/Spain and

that for Germany - the benchmark euro area sovereign debt market - is the key measure of

redenomination risk associated with the break-up of the euro area as perceived by the market.

The use of countries’quanto CDS relative to Germany rests on the idea that such spread would

be close to zero if market perceptions of break-up risks of the euro area were minor. Moreover,

such measure is less prone to issues of whether the liquidity of sovereign CDS contracts is the

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 2same across the currency spectrum, because it is de…ned as a spread across countries’quanto

CDS. Finally, the value of such measure is that it is directly observable, as it is based on traded

contracts and, therefore, it provides the market perception of redenomination risk.

Focusing on Italy, Spain and France and using Germany as benchmark, the proposed measure

of currency redenomination risk as perceived by the market reached a peak for both Italy and

Spain just before the speech by President Draghi on 26 July 2012. Thereafter, it declined

and since the end of 2012 it has remained contained. We then show that the redenomination

risk shocks, de…ned as the unexplained component of the market perception of redenomination

risk orthogonal to global, regional and domestic liquidity risks, signi…cantly a¤ect sovereign

yield spreads, with Italy and Spain being the countries most adversely a¤ected, followed by

France. According to our estimates, at the time of its maximum impact in the …rst quarter

of 2012, a decomposition of sovereign yield spreads suggests that about 30%, 40% and 50% of

the respective French, Italian and Spanish sovereign yield spreads (respectively 35, 200 and 275

basis points) could be explained by redenomination risk shocks.

Finally, we test for the spillover e¤ects, de…ned as the transmission of the foreign redenomi-

nation risk shocks to domestic markets over and above the domestic shocks. The results suggest

that Italy and Spain are relatively less a¤ected from redenomination risk spillovers, while France

is also a¤ected by foreign redenomination risk shocks. Given that the foreign redenomination

risk shocks spill over and above the local redenomination risk shocks, we can argue that this

risk is systemic for the euro area.

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 31 Introduction

In the …rst half of 2012, there were market concerns of a euro break-up. Euro area sovereign

bond yields relative to the overnight index swap (OIS) rate - a risk-free rate proxy - reached

record highs, with Italian and Spanish 5-year sovereign yield spreads (i.e. the di¤erence between

the sovereign yield and the OIS rate at 5-year maturity) rising in a few weeks from 200 basis

points in March to 500-600 basis points in July (see Figure 1). It seemed that such developments

were the results of self-ful…lling speculation and multiple equilibria (Calvo, 1988; Kehoe and

Cole, 2000; Corsetti and Dedola, 2014), as many papers …nd evidence that a signi…cant part of

the surge in the euro area sovereign yield spreads over the 2010-2012 period was disconnected

from underlying …scal fundamentals (De Grauwe and Ji, 2012; Di Cesare et al., 2012; Favero,

2013; De Santis, 2014; Dewachter, et al. 2015).

On 26 July 2012, Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank (ECB), in a

speech at an investment conference in London said that a “convertibility risk” explained this

phenomenon, preventing the smooth functioning of the ECB’s monetary policy across national

borders inside the euro area, and acknowledged that …nancial markets were pricing the risk of

break-up. He pledged to do "whatever it takes" to protect the euro area from collapse.

After the "whatever it takes" speech, the ECB launched the Eurosystem’s Outright Mon-

etary Transactions (OMTs) in secondary sovereign bond markets. Spain and Italy’s sovereign

yields and CDS spreads fell by about 250-350 basis points compared to the peak in July and

they declined steadily during the course of 2012. It is generally accepted by academics, bankers,

investors and policymakers that in launching the OMTs the ECB aimed at eliminating the …-

nancial risk premium caused by redenomination (or break-up) risk, which can be de…ned as the

compensation demanded by market participants for the risk that a euro asset will be redenom-

inated into a devalued legacy currency.

[Insert Figure 1, here]

Redenomination is a process whereby a country currency is recalibrated (i ) due to signi…cant

in‡ation and currency devaluation, (ii ) when a currency union is formed, (iii ) when a currency

union breaks up. The determinants of redenomination risk are very di¤erent depending upon

the process under consideration.

Redenomination of the …rst kind has a long history.

In the 19th century, recoinage of

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 4gold or silver coins happened in various occasions (Helleiner, 2003); after the end of Bretton

Woods system in 1973, many developing and transition nations redenominated their currencies,

typically removing one of the zeros from the old currency (for instance, Turkey replaced in

January 2005 its currency (the Lira) with the “New Turkish Lira” and Romania in July 2005

introduced a new “heavy” version of its currency, the leu, with four fewer zeros).

In these

cases, redenomination of individual currencies occurred after hyperin‡ation and sharp currency

devaluations and governments adopted this policy aiming at anchoring in‡ation expectations.

Redenomination risk in these cases is driven by expected in‡ation, which clearly is not a plausible

explanation in the current context as euro area in‡ation has been rather muted.

Redenomination of the second kind has also its own tradition. Rose (2007) provides the list

of currency union members after the second world war. Among the largest currency areas, one

can list the West and the Central African CFA franc (50 million people), which were created in

1945 with the currency pegged to the French franc and since 1999 to the euro, and the European

and Economic Monetary Union (EMU), which was formed in January 1999 and has a population

of 330 million people. In the speci…c case of the EMU, the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 set out

the ground rules for the introduction of the single currency. These conditions are known as the

’convergence criteria’ (or ’Maastricht criteria’) and include low and stable in‡ation, exchange

rate stability and sound public …nances. Therefore, the redenomination risk in the context of

entry in the EMU is expected to be linked to the convergence criteria.

Redenomination of the third kind has also plenty of examples. Over the period 1949-

1994, Rose (2007) counted 68 departure from currency unions and found remarkably little

macroeconomic volatility around the time of currency union dissolutions. This is because the

historical examples counted for many developing countries and, more in general, for countries

with less than 0.5% of world GDP and much less in terms of …nancial market size. It is generally

shared that the consequences of the euro area breaking up are unknown because the euro area

plays an important role globally in terms of its economy and …nancial markets: the euro area

accounts for about 20% of world GDP, 35% of global bank assets and liabilities, 40% of over

the counter (OTC) interest rate derivative market, 35% of OTC foreign exchange derivative

market and EUR 4 trillion of euro denominated debt contracts in existence outside the euro

area jurisdiction, which would be very hard to redenominate e¢ ciently in case the euro ceases

to exist (BIS, 2014; ECB, 2014). The consequences of the euro area break-up would be severe;

hence, one can assume that only extraordinary developments, such a sovereign credit event,

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 5could trigger it. In fact, the market concerns of a euro break-up are discussed in the context of

the euro area sovereign debt crisis.

Can we measure the intra-euro area redenomination risk?

Currency risk was an important theme of academic research and political debate in, for

example, the wake of the European Monetary System currency crisis in 1992, the Mexican

…nancial crisis of 1994-1995, the Asian …nancial crisis of 1997, the Argentina’s …nancial crisis

in 1998-2002, or the break-up of the Ruble currency area between 1991 and 1995 and of the

Czechoslovakian currency union in 1993. However, this debate is not helpful in the context

of euro area because intra-euro area redenomination risk is a joint risk of the probability of a

sovereign credit event and the depreciation of the new legal currencies.

In this paper, we propose a time-varying, country-speci…c measure of intra-euro area rede-

nomination risk as perceived by the market, investigate its role in pricing sovereign yield spreads

and assess its systemic e¤ect by estimating the impact of foreign spillovers. The probability

and size distribution of macroeconomic disasters are di¢ cult to quantify empirically because

the relevant events are rare and possibly absent in short samples (Barro , 2006 and 2009; Barro

and Ursua, 2008; Barro and Jin, 2011; Barro, et al., 2013). The key advantage of the proposed

measured is that it is observable daily.

There are …ve main approaches suggested implicitly by the literature to study the phenom-

enon. The …rst approach relies on using currency option prices to measure a severe exchange rate

crisis, including the EUR/USD volatility skew.1 However, this approach, while o¤ering useful

information about the volatility of the EUR/USD exchange rate and the expected depreciation

of the currency by the market, does not uniquely identify market perception of intra-euro area

redenomination risk, as a multiplicity of factors can a¤ect expectations of EUR/USD changes

and the key exchange rate of interest is the new legal currency against the euro. Moreover,

the EUR/USD option price does not provide a country-speci…c measure and, therefore, cannot

indicate the source of the crisis and its potential systemic risk. A second approach relies on an

indicator from market Intrade, a platform that has ceased to exist, which suggested that the

probability that at least one country using the euro will leave the euro area by the end of 2013

was about 65% in November 2011, 40% in March 2012 and 60% in August 2012 (Shambaugh,

2012; Klose and Weigert, 2012). Similarly to the …rst approach, the indicator from market

1 See Campa and Chang (1996), Carr and Wu (1997), Farhi et al. (2009), Burnside et al. (2011), Hui and

Chung (2011) and Jurek (2014).

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 6Intrade, which is no longer available, cannot indicate the source of the crisis and its potential

systemic risk. A third approach focuses on the estimation of equilibrium values of sovereign

yields and the distance from the actual value is the non-fundamental driven sovereign spread

(Dewachter, et al. 2015). The disadvantage of this approach is that all non-fundamental factors

including market perception of redenomination risk play a signi…cant role and, therefore, one

cannot clearly isolate redenomination risk. A fourth approach computes the expected currency

depreciation upon exit using open economy New Keynesian general equilibrium models. Kri-

woluzky et al. (2014) have calibrated a small-open economy model to Greece. The disadvantage

of this approach is that one has to rely upon a speci…c theoretical model and key calibrated

parameters. A …fth approach compares the yields of bonds issued in di¤erent currencies, with

the intuition that the spread should re‡ect expected exchange rate movements. Krishnamurthy,

et al. (2014) have considered the di¤erence between the euro and the US dollar denominated

sovereign yield spreads under the hypothesis that euro denominated sovereign yields should

price redenomination risk as perceived by the market. They found that the redenomination risk

channel is operative mainly for Spain and Portugal, but not for Italy. However, the US dollar

market for euro area sovereign bonds is much less liquid, as only less than 0.5% of sovereign

bonds of the largest euro area players, such as Germany, France, Italy and Spain, is issued

in foreign currency. The resulting liquidity premium in the US dollar market might o¤set the

redenomination risk premium emanating from the euro denominated bond market.

In this paper, we follow this …fth approach, but employ US dollar and euro denominated CDS

spreads, which are used by investors to hedge against sovereign credit risk (Du¢ e, 1999) and

are typically very liquid (Bongaerts, et al., 2011; Longsta¤, et al., 2011). It could be argued

that given the original contract it may be irrelevant whether the country declaring a credit

event introduces a new currency. Financial letters and newspapers in 2012 asked (i) whether

the sovereign bonds issued in the leaving country would still be repaid in euro or redenominated

in the new currency; (ii) who would decide; (iii) in which courts would jurisdiction reside and

(iv) whether outside courts would have any jurisdiction over a sovereign government. This is

just a sample of the issues involved. The slim probability of such event combined with the

severe implications forced …nancial managers to deal with such an important issue, sometimes

using products to hedge against it. Although a credit event of a member country does not

automatically imply the break-up of the euro area or the obligation payments in a new devalued

currency, it certainly increases the market perception of risk of redenomination of sovereign

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 7assets in a new depreciated legal currency.

We use quanto CDS, namely the di¤erence between the CDS quotes in US dollar and euros.

The di¤erential between USD- and euro-denominated CDS spreads is expected to be positive for

Italian and Spanish sovereign contracts in the course of the …rst half of 2012, because an euro-

denominated credit event protection seemed increasingly less attractive. Should for example

Italy declare a credit event, euro 10 million worth of protection on an Italian credit event would

be worth much less after a credit event as a consequence of the devaluation of the euro or, if

the euro would no longer exist, as a result of the devaluation of the “new” currency. This led

to a major drop in demand for EUR-denominated Italian (and other European) protection. It

is important to emphasise that the USD-denominated CDS market for euro area sovereigns is

relatively bigger and if a liquidity premium existed in the EUR-denominated CDS market, the

compensation for illiquid assets on top of the compensation for credit risk would be earned by

the credit protection seller (Bongaerts, et. al. 2011). This implies that the quanto CDS is

rather a conservative measure.

A credit event does not automatically imply the break-up of the euro area, as in the Greek

case in March 2012. Therefore, the quanto CDS, which measures the risk associated with

the depreciation against the US dollar and not the intra-euro area currency risk, is not a

su¢ cient measure. We argue that the di¤erence between the quanto CDS for Italy/Spain and

that for Germany - the benchmark euro area sovereign debt market - is the key measure of

redenomination risk associated with the break-up of the euro area as perceived by the market.

The use of countries’quanto CDS relative to Germany rests on the idea that such spread would

be close to zero if market perceptions of break-up risks of the euro area were minor. Moreover,

such measure is less prone to issues of whether the liquidity of sovereign CDS contracts is the

same across the currency spectrum, because it is de…ned as a spread across countries’quanto

CDS. Finally, the value of such measure is that it is directly observable, as it is based on traded

contracts and, therefore, it provides the market perception of redenomination risk.

We make use of a new source of data on euro-denominated CDS contracts, which are available

for few largest euro area sovereign debt markets. Focusing on Italy, Spain and France and using

Germany as benchmark, the proposed measures of currency redenomination risk reached a peak

for both Italy and Spain just before the speech by President Draghi on 26 July 2012. Thereafter,

they declined and since the end of 2012 they remained contained.

It is expected that the higher the redenomination risk premium demanded by investors the

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 8higher the sovereign yield spreads. The empirical analysis based on both single country vector

autoregression (VAR) models and a factor-augmented vector autoregressive (FAVAR) approach

supports the link between market perception of redenomination risk and sovereign yield spreads.

We show that the redenomination risk shocks, de…ned as the unexplained component of the mar-

ket perception of redenomination risk orthogonal to exchange rate, global, regional and liquidity

risks, signi…cantly a¤ect sovereign credit spreads, with Italy and Spain being the countries most

adversely a¤ected, followed by France. The proposed measure of market perception of rede-

nomination risk captures an important component of overall sovereign risk, in the sense that it

explains a signi…cant share of the sovereign yield spreads of Italy, Spain and France.

We perform an extensive series of robustness checks that support our results. Based on

a VAR decomposition, redenomination risk shocks during the peak in July 2012 accounted

for about 165 basis points (= 28%) of the Italian 5-year sovereign yield spread, 275 basis

points (= 39%) of the Spanish 5-year sovereign yield spread and 13 basis points (= 28%)

of the French 5-year sovereign yield spread. At its maximum impact in the …rst quarter of

2012, a decomposition of sovereign yield spreads suggests that about 30%, 40% and 50% of

the respective French, Italian and Spanish sovereign spreads is explained by redenomination

risk shocks. These estimates are larger than those obtained by Kriwoluzky et al. (2014), who

develop a New Keynesian model applied to Greece, where currency risk accounts for about 10%

of the rise in sovereign yield spreads. However, these results are not necessarily contradictory

given the greater role played by credit risk in the Greek crisis.

Finally, we test for the spillover e¤ects, de…ned as the transmission of the foreign redenomi-

nation risk shocks to domestic markets over and above the domestic shocks. The results suggest

that Italy and Spain are relatively less a¤ected from redenomination risk spillovers, while France

is also a¤ected by foreign redenomination risk shocks. Therefore, we can argue that this risk is

systemic for the euro area. It is important to stress that these results are obtained controlling

for a large number of …nancial variables, including the level or skew of daily currency option

prices, which are often used as a measure of currency risk.

The remaining sections of the paper are structured as follows: Section 2 shows the derivation

of the market perception of redenomination risk. Section 3 presents brie‡y the underlying

econometric speci…cations, discusses the main risk factors used as controls and summarises the

key results. Section 4 concludes.

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 92 An observable measure of redenomination premium

2.1 The concept

Du¢ e (1999), Longsta¤, et al. (2005 and 2011), Pan and Singleton (2008) and others have

explained the sovereign CDS contract being an insurance contract against a credit event on

sovereign debt. The CDS buyer pays a fee in regular intervals. Upon a credit event, the buyer

receives the di¤erence between the par value and the recovery value of the bonds.2 Selling pro-

tection through a CDS contract replicates a leveraged long position in bonds of the underlying

reference entity, exposing protection sellers to risks similar to those of a creditor. Conversely,

buying protection through CDS replicates a short position on bonds of the underlying reference

entity (with proceeds reinvested at the riskless rate).3 All in all, CDS spreads are market pre-

mia used primarily to manage credit risk on debt and …xed-income positions and the premium

payments are paid on the face value of the protection.

Using the reduced-form model notation proposed by Doshi, el al. (2013),4 the yearly CDS

spread Sc;h

t

for a h-year sovereign c CDS contract can be computed as the rate which equates

the present value of the payments (premium leg) to the present value of the expected payout

(loss leg),

premium leg

loss leg

h

j=1
X

Et
z

Sc;h
t

2

4

qc
t+jAt+j (t + j)
}|

{
3

=

Et
z

5

h

Rc)

(1

(cid:0)

qc
}|
t+j
(cid:0)

1 (cid:0)

qc
t+j

A (t + j)

(cid:0)

(cid:1)

;
{
3

5

(1)

2

4

j=1
X

where Rc is the recovery rate (as a proportion of the face value of the protection), qc

t+j is the

survival probability at time t + j, qc

t+j

1 (cid:0)

(cid:0)

qc
t+j is the probability that the credit event occurs

2 Also private sector involvement (PSI) constitutes a credit event. On 9 March 2012, the International Swaps
and Derivatives Association (ISDA) ruled that the activation by the Greek Government of the collective action
clauses (CACs) constituted a ’restructuring credit event’ for CDS referencing Greek sovereign debt. A CAC
allows a supermajority of bondholders to agree to a debt restructuring that is legally binding on all holders of the
bond, including those who vote against the restructuring. 96.9 per cent of private sector bondholders participated
in the exchange of their Greek government bonds for short-term European Financial Stability (EFSF) notes and
new long-term Greek government bonds, which equated to a reduction of 53.5 per cent in nominal values and
around 75 per cent in net present value terms. As the debt swap deal caused signi…cant economic losses to private
creditors, Fitch downgraded Greece’s sovereign debt rating from "C" to "RD" (Restricted Default) and the ISDA
declared a credit event. An auction held by 14 banks set a price of 21.5 per cent of par and a market-wide pay-out
of USD 2.5 billion, or 78.5 per cent of the USD 3.2 billion of net outstanding CDS as of March 9, when the credit
event was declared by ISDA, the industry body that rules on pay-outs. The pay-out was considered fair value by
many strategists and investors (http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/0997e7f4-71c4-11e1-b853-00144feab49a.html).
3 For changes and trends in the CDS markets as well as a survey of the literature about the trading, pricing

and clearing of CDS see the International Organization of Securities Commissions (2012).

4 The only di¤erence vis-à-vis Doshi, et al (2013) is that they use an indicator function, we use in our notation

the survival probability.

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 10during the interval (t + j

(cid:0)

1; t + j) and A (t + j) is the riskless discount rate exp

with rt+j being the risk free rate.

In terms of notation, (1

(cid:0)

h
1
j=0 rt+j
(cid:0)

(cid:0)

(cid:17)
(cid:16)
Rc) is the loss given default,

P

(cid:21)c
t+j = (1

(cid:0)

Rc)

qc
t+j

1 (cid:0)

(cid:0)

qc
t+j

and Et

h
j=1 (cid:21)c

t+jA (t + j) is the present value of the expected

loss as a percentage of exposure after a credit event.

P

(cid:16)

(cid:17)

From the point of view of an international investor based for example in the United States,

if the contract has a face value of the protection denominated in US dollars ($), N c;U SD

t

, using

(1) then

Sc;h;U SD
t

=

Et

N c;U SD

t

h

Et

N c;U SD

t

P

h
j=1 (cid:21)c
h
j=1 qc

t+jA (t + j)
i

t+jA (t + j)
i

=

Et

Et

h

hP

h
j=1 (cid:21)c
h
j=1 qc

P
t+jA (t + j)
i

t+jA (t + j)
i

;

(2)

hP
if instead the contract has a face value of the protection denominated in euro, N c;EU R

t

, then

Sc;h;EU R
t

=

=

Et

Et

Et

Et

t

t

h

h

j=1 N c;EU R
j=1 N c;EU R
j=1 X L;c
j=1 X P;c

t+j(cid:21)c

t+jqc

h

hP

hP
h

hP

t+jA (t + j)
i

t+jA (t + j)

X L;c

t+j(cid:21)c

X P;c

t+jqc

t+jA (t + j)
i

t+jA (t + j)

i

;

(3)

hP

i

where X P;c

t+j is the USD/EUR exchange rate contingent upon a credit event not having occurred,

X L;c

t+j is the USD/EUR exchange rate contingent upon a credit event having occurred over the

period t + h and A (t + j) is the riskless discount rate prevailing in the US dollar money market.

Divide numerator and denominator by the current USD/EUR exchange rate, X P;c

t

, then

Sc;h;EU R
t

=

Et

h
j=1

Et

hP

h
j=1

(cid:16)

1 + xL;c
t+j
1 + xP;c
t+j

hP

(cid:16)

(cid:21)c
t+jA (t + j)

qc
t+jA (t + j)

;

i

i

(cid:17)

(cid:17)

(4)

1 is the USD/EUR exchange rate appreciation contingent upon a

where xP;c

t+j = X P;c

t+j=X P;c
credit event not having occurred and xL;c

t (cid:0)

t (cid:0)
appreciation contingent upon a credit event having occurred.

t+j = X L;c

t+j=X P;c

1 is the USD/EUR exchange rate

Assume that in the absence of a credit event the exchange rate follows a random walk, X P;c

t+j =

X P;c

t +"c

t where "c

t is a white noise; then Et

h
j=1

1 + xP;c
t+j

qc
t+jA (t + j) = Et

h
j=1 qc

t+jA (t + j)

P

(cid:16)

(cid:17)

P

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 11and (4) can be written as

Sc;h;EU R
t

=

Et

h
j=1

1 + xL;c
t+j

(cid:21)c
t+jA (t + j)
i

h
j=1 qc

t+jA (t + j)

(cid:17)

hP

Et

(cid:16)

hP

i

:

(5)

This implies that the quanto CDS, that is the di¤erence between the USD- and the EUR-

denominated CDS spreads, can be computed subtracting (5) from (2)

Qc;h

t =

Et

Et

hP

h
j=1 (cid:21)c
h
j=1 qc

t+jA (t + j)

Et

h
j=1

1 + xL;c
t+j

(cid:21)c
t+jA (t + j)

t+jA (t + j)
i

i

(cid:0)

hP

Et

(cid:16)

h
j=1 qc

(cid:17)

t+jA (t + j)
i

;

i

(6)

hP
which can be rewritten as

hP

Credit risk (=0)

Qc;h
t

=

Et
z
Et

hP

h
j=1 (cid:21)c
h
j=1 qc

t+jA (t + j)
i

t+jA (t + j)
i

Et

}|
(cid:0)

hP

Et

h
j=1 (cid:21)c
h
j=1 qc

t+jA (t + j)
{
i

t+jA (t + j)
i

hP

hP

Credit event probability-weighted expected currency depreciation (+)

Et

Et

z
(cid:0)

h
j=1 (cid:21)c
h
j=1 qc

t+jA (t + j)
}|
t+jA (t + j)

hP

Et

i

hP

i

h

2

4

j=1
X

(7)

xL;c
{
t+j3

5

currency risk associated with expected loss (+)

COVt

z
(cid:0)

hP
Et

h

h
j=1 (cid:21)c

j=1 xL;c
t+j;
}|
h
j=1 qc
P
t+jA (t + j)
i

t+jA (t + j)

;
{
i

hP
By subtracting the EUR-denominated CDS from the USD-denominated CDS, the credit risk

component becomes nil and what is left is the expected depreciation and the currency risk

component. Given that in case of a credit event among euro area countries the US dollar is

expected to appreciate, then X L;c

t+i < X P;c

t

and xL;c

t+i = X L;c

t+i=X P;c

t (cid:0)

1 < 0. Therefore, the second

component of (7), namely the credit event probability-weighted country c’s expected currency

depreciation against the US dollar, is positive. Moreover, the larger the expected loss, the

larger the expected depreciation; hence the third component of (7), namely the currency risk

associated with the expected loss, is also positive:

COVt

(cid:0)

h

j=1 xL;c
t+j;

h
j=1 (cid:21)c

hP

P

t+jA (t + j)
i

>

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 120: Therefore,

Qc;h
t

=

Sc;h;U SD
t

Et

(cid:0)

h

j=1 xL;c

t+j

hP

(cid:0)

i

COVt[

h

j=1 xL;c
t+j ;
h
j=1 qc

h
j=1 (cid:21)c
t+j A(t+j)]
P

Et[
P

t+j A(t+j)]

> 0:

(8)

P

Qc;h

t measures the compensation demanded by market participants for the risk associated

in holding euro-denominated assets that the US dollar appreciates against the euro or the new

legacy currency after a credit event.

Intra-euro area redenomination risk is the compensation demanded by market participants

for the risk that a new legal currency devalues against the euro or the new benchmark legacy

currency. Therefore, the market perception of intra-euro area redenomination (or convertibility)

risk premium, I c;b;h

t

, is de…ned by subtracting from (8) an euro area benchmark country b’quanto

CDS:

I c;b;h
t

I c;b;h
t

= Qc;h

t (cid:0)

Qb;h
t

:

(9)

is the credit event probability-weighted expected depreciation of the new country c’cur-

rency versus the new country b’s currency plus the di¤erence of the currency risk associated

with the expected loss across the two countries.

I c;b;h
t

has the additional advantage that is less prone to issues of whether the liquidity or

institutional characteristics of sovereign CDS contracts is the same across the currency spectrum,

because it is de…ned as a spread across countries’quanto CDS. Nevertheless, it should be pointed

out that if a liquidity premium existed in the EUR-denominated CDS market, the illiquidity

compensation on top of the compensation for credit risk would be earned by the credit protection

seller (Bongaerts, et. al. 2011). This implies that I c;b;h

t

would be rather a conservative measure.

Assume that market participants perceive the euro to be irreversible: I c;b;h

t

t >(cid:21)b;h
(cid:21)c;h

t

= 0.

This implies that Qc;h

t = Qb;h

t

and, rearranging (8),

(cid:12)
(cid:12)

Sc;h;U SD
t

(cid:0)

Sb;h;U SD
t

=

(cid:0)

COVt

h
j=1 x
Et[

U SD=EU R
t+j
h
j=1

qc
t+j

j=1 (cid:21)c
h
;
A(t+j)]
P

t+j A(t+j)
(cid:21)

COVt

(cid:20)

P

(cid:0)

h
j=1 x
Et[

U SD=EU R
t+j
h
j=1

qb
t+j

j=1 (cid:21)b
h
;
A(t+j)]
P

t+j A(t+j)
(cid:21)

:

(cid:20)

P

P

Et

h

j=1 xU SD=EU R

t+j

hP

P

i

Given that in case of a credit event in the euro area the euro is expected to depreciate (i.e.

Et

h

j=1 xU SD=EU R

t+j

< 0), then the USD-denominated CDS spreads of sovereign country

c vis-à-vis the benchmark country remain positive, Sc;h;U SD

hP

i

COVt

if, (cid:0)

hP

h

j=1 xU SD=EU R
Et[

t+j
h
j=1 qc

;
t+j A(t+j)]
P

h
j=1 (cid:21)c

t+j A(t+j)
i

COVt

< (cid:0)

hP

Sb;h;U SD
t
h
j=1 (cid:21)b

t

h

(cid:0)
j=1 xU SD=EU R
Et[

t+j
h
j=1 qb

;
t+j A(t+j)]
P

t+j A(t+j)
i

> 0, if, and only

; if, in other

words, the USD/EUR currency risk associated with the expected loss is higher in the case of a

P

P

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 13credit event in the benchmark country, which is not implausible given the disaster event.

If also the currency risks are of the same magnitude across countries, then Sc;h;U SD

(cid:0)
= 0. This suggests that if market participants perceive small the risk of euro area

t

Sb;h;U SD
t

break-up, then CDS spreads across euro area countries will tend to be relatively minor. To make

this point clear, the case of Greece is illustrative. In March 2012, when the Greek government

declared the credit event, the 10-year Greek sovereign yield hit record high 40%. When it

became clear to investors that Greece would have remained in the euro area, the 10-yr Greek

sovereign yield started a steady decline reaching 5% in the summer 2014.

Given that the expected probability of a credit event in the benchmark country is negligible,

we expect

I c;b;h
t

The propositions that Qc;h

t > 0 and I c;b;h

t

(cid:12)
(cid:12)
(cid:12)
(cid:12)

terise the data.

2.2 The empirical measure

t > (cid:21)b;h
(cid:21)c;h

t (cid:21)

0:

(10)

0 are key features that should charac-

(cid:21)c;h
t >(cid:21)b;h

t (cid:21)

(cid:12)
(cid:12)

The USD- and EUR-denominated CDS spreads are plotted in Figure 2 for Italian, Spanish,

French and German sovereigns at 3- and 5-year maturity. They are only reliable from Sep-

tember 2011, as they move with prolonged constant shifts in 2010 and in the earlier part of

2011.5 However, this is not a big issue because the emergence of the risk of redenomination as

perceived by the market was witnessed from the second half of 2011.6 As shown in Figures 1

and 2, the most critical period for Italy, Spain and France is the sample period we are able to

study. The CDS spreads were relatively large until the Draghi’speech on redenomination risk.

Subsequently, both USD- and EUR-denominated CDS spreads started to decline (see Figure 2).

The quanto CDS at 3- and 5-year maturities are always positive in accordance with expres-

sion (8) with a size that is larger for Spain and Italy and smaller for France and Germany (see

Figure 3), as one would expect given that the joint probability of a sovereign credit event and

the depreciation of the new legal currency has been higher for Italian and Spanish sovereign

5 We have chosen the 13th of September 2011 as the beginning of our sample, because Thomson Reuters
constructed USD- and EUR denominated sovereign par yields using CDS data considered of high quality starting
from this date.

6 See speech by by Mario Draghi, President of the ECB, "The euro, monetary policy and reforms", Rome, 6

May 2013 (http://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/key/date/2013/html/sp130506.en.html).

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 14markets.

[Insert Figure 2, here]

[Insert Figure 3, here]

Germany is identi…ed as the benchmark country for three main reasons: (i) the expected

probability of a credit event in Germany has been so far considered negligible, as its debt is

accredited with the top-notch triple-A rating,7 (ii) the …nancial situation of the country is solid,

(iii) the country is relatively large playing a central role in the euro area. This explains why the

German Bund yield comoves with the euro OIS (risk-free) rate (see Figure 1), being even lower

during the euro area sovereign debt crisis due to ‡ight-to-liquidity (De Santis, 2014; De Santis

and Stein, 2014). All in all, by setting Germany as the benchmark country, the hypothesis that
t > (cid:21)b;h
(cid:21)c;h

should hold particularly for Italy and Spain over the sample period.

t

The empirical measure of market perception of redenomination risk for Italian, Spanish

and French sovereigns is plotted in Figure 4 (left panel). The redenomination risk premia are

positive in accordance with expression (10), except for few calendar days for France at 3-year

maturity in September 2011.8 The market perception of redenomination risk premium at 3- and

5-year maturity for Italy and Spain ‡uctuated around 30 and 40 basis points up to mid-February

2012. Thereafter, it increased, reaching in May 2012 in the speci…c case of Spanish contracts

about 110 basis points at 3-year maturity and 95 basis points at 5-year maturity. After a sharp

‡uctuation in June and July, since the London’s speech by Draghi on 26 July 2012, the market

perception of redenomination risk premium at 3-year maturity started a steady decline for both

Italy and Spain. The market perception of redenomination risk measured at 5-year maturity

started to decline only after the September ECB Governing Council meeting, which announced

the technical implementation of the OMTs. Since end of 2012, the redenomination premium

has been fairly constant, ‡uctuating at a level of around 20-30 basis points for both maturities.

The market perception of the redenomination risk premium for France was also relatively large

in the …rst half of 2012 and has been quite stable after the September ECB Governing Council

meeting, being very close to zero at 3-year maturity.

The market perception of the redenomination risk premium comoves only partly with the

EUR/USD volatility skew as measured by the 10-delta USD/EUR option implied volatility (see

7 The only other euro area countries, which enjoy the best possible credit ratings, are Finland and Luxembourg.
8 The sovereign bonds of France and Germany in 2011 and 2012 were considered relatively safe by investors
and these assets were rated triple-A by the credit rating agencies. This explains why redenomination risk for
France is minor and for few days in 2011 also turned negative.

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 15right panel of Figure 4). The unconditional correlations based on the daily …rst di¤erences are

close to zero for Italy and France and amount to 11.9% for Spain (see Table 1). The advantage

of the suggested market perception of the redenomination risk premium is that it is country-

speci…c and conditioned to credit events, which could indeed lead to the break-up of the euro

area. It is function of the currency risk within the euro area (i.e. intra-currency risk), while the

10-delta USD/EUR option implied volatility is a measure of extra-currency risk; thereby, it does

not uniquely identify redenomination risk, as a multiplicity of factors can a¤ect expectations of

the USD/EUR exchange rate.

[Insert Figure 4, here]

[Insert Table 1, here]

3 The determinants of sovereign yield spreads

A key question is investigating whether the country-speci…c redenomination risk premia as

perceived by the market are statistically signi…cant in explaining the dynamics of sovereign

yield spreads. To address this important issue we have employed VAR methodology relying

on daily asset price data and a large number of variables to disentangle the redenomination

shock from other common shocks embodied in asset prices. We estimate three single country

VAR, one per country (Italy, Spain and France).

It could be argued that this approach is

inconsistent given that we estimate three di¤erent dynamics for the variables that are common

to the models (these are the so-called regional and global variables). Therefore, in addition, a

FAVAR a la Bernanke, et al (2005) including all sovereign yield spreads and market perception

of redenomination risk premia with the principal components of a sub-set variables is estimated.

The …rst subsection describes brie‡y the method, the second subsection presents the explanatory

variables and the third subsection discusses the econometric results.

3.1 The VAR

The VAR takes the following form:

A0Yt = (cid:30) +

p

j=1
X

AjYt

(cid:0)

j + "t;

(11)

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 16where Yt is the k

(cid:2)

1 vector of variables observed at time t in the single country VAR and

the k

(cid:2)

1 vector of observed variables and principal components at time t in the FAVAR,9 p

is the lag length and "t is a k

(cid:2)

1 vector of structural shocks, de…ned as being uncorrelated

with one another. A0 is the impact matrix. Restrictions must be imposed on A0 to uniquely

recover the structural form. Given the large set of …nancial variable employed, the identi…ca-

tion restrictions imposed on A0 is recursive (Sims, 1980), which is equivalent to a Cholesky

factor of the variance-covariance matrix of the reduced form white noise innovations with the

redenomination risk shocks ordered last just before the local stock market and sovereign credit

spreads. This assumption is very conservative, as we assume that all common contemporane-

ous shocks that could a¤ect global variables, exchange rate variables, regional variables and

liquidity variables are not classi…ed as redenomination risk shocks, as the former variables do

not depend contemporaneously on market perception of redenomination risk which is ordered

after. Yet, the recursive approach is not linked to economic theory. However, if the residu-

als of the redenomination risk equation are mildly correlated with the residuals of the control

variables of the system (i.e. global and exchange rate variables, regional variables and liquidity

variables), then the results based on the Cholesky factorization would be much more general.

A mild correlation matrix of the residuals of the VAR and similar impulse response functions

of the redenomination risk shocks based on alternative ordering of the variables are important

features to validate the use of the recursive approach.

The structural VAR associated with this equation can be represented by its vector moving

average form,

Yt = (cid:22) + C (L) "t,

(12)

where L is the lag operator, C (L) =

A0

(cid:0)

A0

(cid:0)

1j=1 AjLj

1

(cid:0)

1j=1 AjLj

1

(cid:0)

and the constant k-vector (cid:22) =

(cid:17)
(cid:30). As suggested by equation (12), the variations of the endogenous vari-

P

(cid:16)

(cid:16)
ables can only be explained by variations in current and past structural shocks. Note that the

P

(cid:17)

endogenous variables depend on an in…nite number of past structural shocks. Given the …nite

sample, the e¤ect of all shocks that are realised previous to the sample is captured by the initial

values of the endogenous variables. Therefore, equation (12) can be re-written as the sum of

the time-varying deterministic component, Yd

t , and its stochastic component, Ys

t . The stability

condition of a VAR requires that Yd

t (cid:0)!

(cid:22) when t increases, because the shocks that are too

9 We consider a two-step estimation method, in which the factors are estimated by principal components prior

to the estimation of the FAVAR.

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 17far in the past have no e¤ect in the current value of the variables. Yd

t , which is a function of

the initial values and of the parameters of the reduced form model, is often referred to as the

reference value of the historical decomposition of shocks.

Given our short sample size T + p, we …rst estimate Yd

t and the contribution to the i-th vari-

able of each regressor. To conduct this exercise, we de…ne Zt= [Yt

(cid:22); Yt

(cid:0)

1

(cid:0)

(cid:0)

(cid:22); ..., Yt

(cid:22)]

p+1

(cid:0)

(cid:0)

and we rewrite model (11) more compactly in companion matrix form as a VAR(1)

Zt = (cid:3)Zt

1 + A(cid:0)

1
0 vt;

(cid:0)

(13)

(cid:3) =

0

B
B
B
B
B
B
B
B
B
B
@

I

0
...

0

Then, by recursive substitution

A(cid:0)

1
0 A1 A(cid:0)

1
0 A2

(cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1)
0

0
. . .

0

I
...

(cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1)

(cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1)

(cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1)

(cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1)

(cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1)
...

I

A(cid:0)

1
0 Ap

0

0
...

0

1

C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
A

;

vt =

"t

0

0
...

0

0

B
B
B
B
B
B
B
B
B
B
@

1

C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
A

Zt=(cid:3)T +1Zt

(T +1) +

(cid:0)

T

s=0
X

(cid:3)sA(cid:0)

1
0 vt

s;

(cid:0)

s = 0;

T:

(cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1)

(14)

where Zd

t = (cid:3)T +1Zt

(cid:0)
stochastic component.

(T +1) is the deterministic component and Zs

t =

T
s=0 (cid:3)sA(cid:0)

1
0 vt

s is the

(cid:0)

P

Let e(R) be a selection row vector of dimension 1

pk, with a one in the place of the

(cid:2)

redenomination risk variables and zeros elsewhere. Then, the deterministic contribution to

the sovereign yield spread of market perception of redenomination risk is calculated as follows

e(R)Zd

t = e(R)(cid:3)T +1Zt

(cid:0)

(T +1) under the hypothesis that (cid:22)(R)= 0:

After having computed the contribution of redenomination risk owing to the initial values of

the VAR, we compute two alternative counterfactuals both based on the hypothesis that market

perception of redenomination risk is zero. The benchmark model is provided by the dynamics

of the model in the absence of shocks, Zd
t .

The …rst counterfactual is obtained by conditioning the VAR to a zero path of the rede-

nomination risk measures. As pointed out by Waggoner and Zha (1999, eq. 6 - pg. 640) and

Jarocinski (2010, eq. 7 - pg. 258), this implies that an agnostic linear combination of all shocks

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 18v1

t exists to explain the assumed paths. Then, the counterfactual requires

e(R)(cid:3)T +1Zt

(T +1) +

(cid:0)

T

s=0
X

e(R)(cid:3)sA(cid:0)

1
0 v1
t
(cid:0)

s = 0:

(15)

Di¤erently form Waggoner and Zha (1999) and Jarocinski (2010), given the regional focus of

the sovereign debt crisis, we assume that global shocks are not the source of the zero path for

market perception of redenomination risk. Global shocks are identi…ed using all global variables

and the three variables associated to the foreign exchange rate. This counterfactual is performed

under the restriction that market perception of redenomination risk is conditional to a zero path

owing to any combination of regional and local shocks, which are orthogonal to global shocks.

The aggregate combination of shocks can be calculated recursively as follows

e(R)A(cid:0)

1
0 (C)v1

t (C) =

e(R)(cid:3)T +1Zt

(T +1)(R) +

(cid:0)

(cid:0) "

T

s=1
X

e(R)(cid:3)sA(cid:0)

1
0 (C)v1
t
(cid:0)

s(C)

#

(16)

where C is the position indicator for all regional and local shocks.

All remaining variables are endogenously determined. The di¤erence between the baseline

and the counterfactual provides the thought experiment of holding market perception of rede-

nomination risk …xed at zero due to the stochastic component: Zd

t (cid:0)

Z1

t =

(cid:0)

T
s=0 (cid:3)sA(cid:0)

1
0 (C)v1
t
(cid:0)

s(C),

where Z1

t is the vector of variables obtained under the counterfactual.

P

The second alternative counterfactual is obtained by making endogenous only a sequence of

the structural redenomination risk shocks v2

t (R), such that the redenomination risk variables

are held at zero:

e(R)(cid:3)T +1Zt

(T +1)(R) +

(cid:0)

T

s=0
X

e(R)(cid:3)sA(cid:0)

1
0 (R)v2
t
(cid:0)

s(R) = 0:

The required values of subsequent shocks can be calculated recursively as follows

v2

t (R) =

e(R)(cid:3)T +1Zt

(cid:0) h

(T +1)(R) +

(cid:0)

T
s=1 e(R)(cid:3)sA(cid:0)
1
0 (R)

1
0 (R)v2
t
(cid:0)

s(R)
i

e(R)A(cid:0)

P

(17)

(18)

and all variables are endogenously determined.10 The di¤erence between the baseline and the

counterfactual provides the thought experiment of holding market perception of redenomination

risk …xed at zero due to the stochastic component: Zd

t (cid:0)

Z2

t =

(cid:0)

T
s=0 (cid:3)sA(cid:0)

1
0 (R)v2
t
(cid:0)

s(R), where

1 0 Bachmann and Sims (2012) applied a similar methodology when studying the impact of a government spend-

P

ing shock "shutting down" the con…dence channel.

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 19Z2

t is the vector of variables obtained under the second counterfactual.

3.2 The variables

We aim at explaining the developments of sovereign yield spreads in Italy and Spain, which

have been under a tremendous pressure during the euro area sovereign debt crisis; speci…cally,

we evaluate the role of market perception of redenomination risk over and above the EUR/USD

volatility skew often used as a measure of currency risk. We also consider the case of France,

which is an important euro area country that has lost the triple-A rating in 2013.

Elton, et al. (2001), Chen, et al. (2007) and Longsta¤, et al. (2005, 2011) …nd that corporate

credit spreads and sovereign credit spreads are not fully explained by credit risk determinants.

Liquidity premia and market-wide factors are important additional components. Therefore, the

selection of the variables has been carried out following the study conducted by Longsta¤, et

al. (2011) and expanding it given the speci…city of the euro area. Given that we use daily data,

we focus primarily on market-determined variables since they should aggregate expectations of

economic agents, which is relevant to investors in the sovereign credit markets. Details about

the de…nitions, timing, and sources of the data for the variables used in this study are provided

in Appendix A.11

3.2.1 Global and foreign exchange variables

Given the key role of market perception of redenomination risk in this paper, we control for

the actual percentage changes in the euro exchange rate against the US dollar, the expected

percentage changes based on the covered interest parity condition and, most importantly, the

EUR/USD implied volatility using currency options out-of-the-money (10-delta) (Carr and Wu,

1997; Hui and Chung, 2011; Jurek, 2014).

Italy, Spain and France have extensive economic relationships with the rest of the world.

Therefore, we include a number of measures from the US equity and …xed income markets, …rst

because shocks to the US …nancial markets are transmitted globally and second because the US

economy is the largest global …nancial centre. As the equity variable, we include the US stock

1 1 Longsta¤, et al. (2011) employ regression analysis in …rst di¤erence and study the monthly changes in the
sovereign CDS spreads on a large set of explanatory variables. However, this approach is correct only if regressors
are exogenous. In our context, sovereign credit spreads, redenomination risk and many …nancial variables could
be jointly determined; therefore, we prefer to use a VAR. Nevertheless, the results of the model in …rst di¤erence,
where we regress the daily changes in both the sovereign CDS spreads and sovereign yield spreads on the daily
changes of the redenomination risk controlling for a large set of domestic, regional and global variables are
reported and discussed in Appendix B.

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 20market price and the volatility risk premium, measured as the di¤erence between implied and

realised volatility (Britten Jones and Neuberger, 2000; Pan, 2002). Speci…cally, we estimate a

GARCH(1,1) on the US stock returns to estimate the realised volatility. These measures are

also used in the literature to control for global risk premia such as jump-to-credit risk, recovery

risk and distress risk (Longsta¤, et. al, 2011). As the …xed income variable, we include the US

Treasury yield at 5-year maturity and the US investment-grade corporate bond spread.

3.2.2 Regional variables

Italy, Spain and France have extensive economic relationships with all other euro area countries.

Given the monetary union, the ability of one of these sovereigns to repay its debt depends not

only on local variables, but also on the aggregate state of the euro area. Furthermore, shifts in

the relative liquidity of markets over time and particularly during the sovereign debt crisis, as

shocks induce investors to reallocate capital across di¤erent asset classes, could create correlation

between asset classes even in the absence of correlated fundamentals.

To capture broad changes in the state of the euro area and/or shifts in the relative perfor-

mance of di¤erent asset classes, we include a number of measures, such as (1) the German CDS

to proxy for the common credit risk component, (2) the break-even in‡ation rate to proxy for

the common in‡ation risk component, (3) the EONIA Overnight Interest rate Swap (OIS) to

proxy for the common monetary policy or funding risk component, (4) the KfW-Bund spread to

proxy for the regional ‡ight-to liquidity risk component (De Santis, 2014; Monfort and Renne,

2014), (5) the Greek sovereign spreads to proxy for the Greek sovereign spillover risk component

and, …nally, (6) the spread of euro area investment grade corporate bonds and (7) the euro area

implied stock market volatility to proxy for the regional risk aversion component. The …rst four

variables of this subsection have a 5-year maturity matching the maturity of the endogenous

variables. The Greek sovereign spreads is calculated based on 10-year maturity given that only

the 10-year yield on Greek sovereign was traded after the escalation of the sovereign debt crisis.

3.2.3 Local variables

The state of the local economy is one important driving force of credit risk in one nation.

Therefore, we consider the local stock market price and the country-speci…c market perception of

redenomination risk. Given the strong correlation between the 3- and 5-year maturity measures

amounting to 60% for Italy, 80% for Spain and 90% for France and given that the OMTs focus

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 21on euro area government bonds with a maturity of between one and three years, we employ

market perception of redenomination risk at 3-year maturities in the main analysis and carry

out robustness check analysis based on the 5-year maturity measure. To capture information

about liquidity risk, we include the speci…c bid-ask spread of the speci…c asset (Beber, et al.,

2009). Finally, persistency is modelled with an autoregressive process.

3.2.4 Principal components

We extract and use the …rst principal component of:

1) US government bond yield at 5-year maturity, the US stock market index, US volatility

premium and US investment grade;

2) EUR depreciation versus USD 5-year forward, EUR depreciation versus USD and EUR/USD

implied volatility using currency options out-of-the-money (10-delta);

3) break-even in‡ation rate 5-yr forward and the 5-yr euro area OIS rate;

4) euro area stock market volatility, euro area investment grade and KfW-Bund spread;

5) Italian, Spanish and French CDS bid-ask spread;

6) Italian, Spanish and French sovereign yield bid-ask spread;

7) Italian, Spanish and French domestic stock markets;

As robustness check we also use the two principal components extracted from all global and

exchange rate variables and the two principal components extracted from all regional variables.

3.3 The empirical results

The variables used in the VAR are the main 18 variables reported in Appendix A: the panel A

describes the variables entering in the single country VAR; the panel B describes the variables

and the principal components entering in the FAVAR. The lag length of each VAR and FAVAR

is 2 based on Akaike information criterion (AIC), suggesting that the dynamic structure are

similar across assets prices.

The unconditional correlation between each individual variable and the redenomination

risk variables is documented in Table 1. The correlation between the country-speci…c market

perception of redenomination risk and the sovereign yield spreads amounts to 9.2% for Italy,

43.2% for Spain and -4.2% for France highlighted in grey, yellow and blue, respectively.

The correlation among the market perception of redenomination risk premia is reported in

the last three columns (see X9-X11): 22.2% between Spain and France, 36% between Spain and

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 22Italy and 39.2% between Italy and France. The correlation between the EUR/USD volatility

skew and the redenomination risk premia is statistically signi…cant only for Spain. It is also

interesting the strong positive correlation between the Italian and Spanish redenomination risk

premia with the euro area corporate spreads, which could be a¤ected also by the degree of

investors’risk aversion and aggregate uncertainty particularly important during the euro area

sovereign debt crisis.

The residuals of each VAR equation of the control variables (i.e. global variables, exchange

rate variables, regional variables and liquidity variables) are mildly correlated with the residuals

of the redenomination risk equation (see Table 2). This bodes well with the simple Cholesky

factorization. At the same time, it is useful to point out that the correlation is positive and sta-

tistically signi…cant between the residuals of the redenomination risk equation and the residuals

of the sovereign yield spreads equation (see RES_X18) for Italy and Spain. Also the correlation

with the residuals of the EUR/USD volatility skew equation (see RES_X7) for Spain is positive

and strongly statistically signi…cant in line with the correlations described in Table 1.

Similarly for the FAVAR model, the residuals of the redenomination risk variables are,

as expected, highly correlated among themselves (see RES_X9-RES_X11 in the last three

columns) as well vis-à-vis the residuals of the sovereign yield spreads (see RES_X16-RES_X18),

but mildly correlated with the residuals of each VAR equation of the control variables. We place

the market perception of domestic redenomination risk before the foreign redenomination risks

in the Cholesky ordering. This is to say that if the foreign redenomination risk shocks exist

than it is over and above the domestic shocks. All in all, the conditional correlations between

the redenomination risk residuals and the residuals of the other control variables of the VAR

are relatively small.

[Insert Table 2, here]

3.3.1 The impact of redenomination risk

To isolate the redenomination risk shocks we assume that A0 is recursive with the market per-

ception of redenomination risk ordered last just before the local stock market and the sovereign

credit spreads. This implies that we …rst identify the global and exchange rate shocks including

the EUR/USD volatility skew, second we identify the regional and the liquidity shocks, and

…nally the redenomination risk shocks. As said this assumption is very conservative, as we

assume that all common contemporaneous shocks that could a¤ect global variables, exchange

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 23rate variables, regional variables and liquidity variables are not classi…ed as redenomination risk

shocks. For example, most likely the EUR/USD volatility skew increases, the euro depreciates

against the US dollar and other premia rise with the intensi…cation of the break-up risk. The

redenomination risk shocks measure developments that are over and above those measured by

standard variables.

The impulse response functions (IRFs) of such shock on sovereign yield spreads is reported

in Figure 5 for the four di¤erent models: three single-country VAR in the …rst three rows and

one FAVAR in the last three rows. The redenomination risk shocks estimated using the single

country VAR and the FAVAR are very similar. This suggests that the results are robust to

model speci…cation. The size of the redenomination risk shock is very similar across countries

amounting to a standard deviation of 2-3 basis points at impact, but is much more persistent in

the case of Italy and Spain. As for the transmission of such shock, the impact is almost twice

as large in Spain relative to Italy and relatively smaller in France. The results are very similar

when changing the ordering of the variables or using generalized impulse response functions

(GIRFs) (see Figure 6). This implies that the results are robust to the ordering of the variables

in the VAR. It is important to emphasise that the IRFs and GIRFs are statistically signi…cant,

despite the skew of the currency option-implied volatility is ordered …rst relative to the market

perception of redenomination risk.

[Insert Figures 5 and 6, here]

In order to estimate the historical decomposition of the redenomination risk shocks, we

rely upon a counterfactual analysis, which assumes that the path for market perception of

redenomination risk is zero.12 The results estimated with the single-country VAR are described

in Figure 7, while those estimated with the FAVAR are described in Figure 8.

Focusing on the single-country VAR, under the hypothesis that the redenomination risk

shocks are endogenously set to deliver a zero path for market perception of redenomination

risk, the key results on sovereign yield spreads are the following (see ’Redenomination risk

shock (b)’in Figures 7):

The contribution of market perception of redenomination risk to the deterministic com-

(cid:15)

ponent of the sovereign yield spreads is marginal across all asset classes.

1 2 The counterfactual analysis is needed because the redenomination risk baseline is biased upward, given that

the sample covers the most heightened sovereign crisis period.

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 24(cid:15)

(cid:15)

(cid:15)

The impact through the stochastic component is relatively large reaching the peak for

sovereign yield spreads in January 2012 in Italy and France and April 2012 in Spain at

200 basis points for Italy, 275 basis points for Spain and 35 basis points for France. This

implies that during the …rst quarter of 2012 about 30%, 40% and 50% of the respective

French, Italian and Spanish sovereign credit spreads could be explained by redenomination

risk shocks.

During the peak of the crisis in July 2012, redenomination risk shocks accounted for about

165 basis points (= 28%) of the Italian 5-year sovereign yield spread, 270 basis points (=

39%) of the Spanish 5-year sovereign yield spread and 13 basis points (= 28%) of the

French 5-year sovereign yield spread.

After President Draghi’s speech in July 2012, the role of redenomination risk as perceived

by the market has become gradually and steadily smaller and by end of 2013 we estimate

that it has contributed to the size of sovereign yield spreads amounting to 110 basis points

in Italy, 160 basis points in Spain and 2 basis points in France.

With the exclusion of global and exchange rate shocks, if all other shocks are endogenously

set to deliver a zero path for market perception of redenomination risk, then the results (see

’Combination of all shocks (a)’ in Figures 7 are very similar for Spain and France, while the

impact is about 50 basis points smaller for Italian sovereign yield spreads.

[Insert Figure 7, here]

The results of the FAVAR (see Figure 8) are not dissimilar from those already presented:

(cid:15)

(cid:15)

The contribution of market perception of redenomination risk to the deterministic com-

ponent of the sovereign yield spreads is marginal across all asset classes. Therefore, they

are not reported for the FAVAR.

The impact through the stochastic component is relatively large reaching the peak for

sovereign yield spreads in the …rst quarter of 2012 in Italy (190 basis points), Spain (250

basis points) and France (22 basis points). This con…rms that during the …rst quarter

of 2012 about 30% of French, 40% of Italian and 50% of Spanish sovereign yield spreads

could be explained by redenomination risk shocks.

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 25(cid:15)

(cid:15)

During the peak of the crisis in July 2012, redenomination risk shocks accounted for about

170 basis points (= 29%) of the Italian 5-year sovereign yield spread, 235 basis points (=

33%) of the Spanish 5-year sovereign yield spread and 9 basis points (= 18%) of the French

5-year sovereign yield spread.

After President Draghi’s speech in July 2012, the role of redenomination risk shocks

have become gradually and steadily smaller and by end of 2013 we estimate that it has

contributed to the size of sovereign yield spreads amounting to 90 basis points in Italy

and 130 basis points in Spain. The contribution of redenomination risk on the French

sovereign yield spread was nil by end of 2013.

All in all, market perception of redenomination risk has played a vital role in describing the

developments in sovereign yield spreads in Italy, Spain and France over the entire 2011-2013

sample period, supporting Mr. Draghi’s worries that investors have been pricing what is an

unfounded and undesirable break-up risk. Moreover, the results suggest that the euro area

sovereign debt crisis remained an issue for policymakers also in 2013.

[Insert Figure 8, here]

3.3.2 The spillover e¤ect

The …nal question we address in this paper is whether redenomination risk shocks in other

countries have spilled over at home. To test this hypothesis we use the market perception of

foreign redenomination risks of the FAVAR placed after the local redenomination risk in the

Cholesky ordering. This is to say that if foreign redenomination risk shock plays a role than

it is over and above the domestic shock. The historical decomposition of the spillover (blue

solid line) is derived as a di¤erence between a counterfactual in which we assume that both

the domestic and the foreign redenomination risk shocks are endogenously set to deliver a zero

path for both redenomination risk variables (black dotted line) and a counterfactual in which

we assume that only the domestic redenomination risk shocks are endogenously set to deliver a

zero path for market perception of domestic redenomination risk (red solid line).

The results reported in Figure 8 suggest that Italy and Spain seem to be less a¤ected from

spillover e¤ects, while France is particularly a¤ected by foreign redenomination risk shocks. At

peak in March 2012, the spillover e¤ects to French sovereign yield spreads amount to 27 basis

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 26points. At peak, the aggregate (domestic plus foreign) redenomination risk shock account for

45 basis points for French sovereign spreads (about 50% of the actual developments).

The spillover e¤ects of the foreign redenomination risk shocks described in Figure 8 suggest

that these measurable new …nancial risk premia are a source of systemic risk.

3.3.3 Robustness check

The robustness check of the results is carried out including additional information such as the

skew of the currency option-implied volatility at 1-year maturity, the EUR/USD 1-month delta-

neutral implied volatility, the US price-earnings ratio to proxy for global equity risk premium,

the net ‡ows (in‡ows minus out‡ows) into mutual funds investing primarily in bonds and equity,

the US CDS spread, the credit spreads of other sovereign in particular the average credit spread

for all the other euro area countries, the local expected budget de…cit to GDP ratio computed

using the consensus forecast, the German sovereign spread, commodity prices. Finally, we also

employ market perception of redenomination risk at 5-year maturity. All the results shown in

this paper remain broadly similar.

The results also do not change if the same variables are included in the FAVAR or if the

…rst two principle components are extracted from the global and exchange rate variables or

from the regional variables. Finally, also the results of the model in …rst di¤erence discussed in

Appendix B should be treated as a robustness check exercise suggesting that the redenomination

risk measures do price signi…cantly and instantaneously sovereign yield spreads.

4 Conclusions

Redenomination risk is one of the key factors behind the pricing of sovereign credit spreads,

particularly of Italian and Spanish sovereigns in 2012. We have addressed this issue empirically

by proposing a measure of country-speci…c redenomination risk based on CDS contracted in

US dollar and euro. Speci…cally, we argue that the di¤erence between the quanto CDS of one

of euro area sovereign (i.e. Italy, Spain and France) and the German quanto CDS can act as

a good observable measure of market perception of intra-euro area redenomination risk, which

behaves according to expectations, namely rising in the …rst half of 2012 and declining after

the speech by Draghi in July 2012. More speci…cally, after the speech, market perception of

redenomination risk ‡uctuated around zero for France and around 20 basis points for Italy and

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 27Spain, while it was positive and large in the …rst half of 2012.

The probability of a credit event with the break-up of the euro area was considered to

be a possibility by the …nancial markets and investors must have been considering their risk

management options hedging against the risk of some changes in the structure of the euro area.

This is the reason why the euro area countries’quanto CDS relative to Germany is a valuable,

observable redenomination risk measure as perceived by the market.

We study whether this measure prices sovereign yield spreads. The results show clearly

that this is the case with the countries most adversely a¤ected being Italy and Spain. At the

time of its maximum impact in the …rst quarter of 2012, a decomposition of both CDS and

sovereign yield spreads suggests that about 30%, 40% and 50% of the respective French, Italian

and Spanish sovereign credit spreads was due to redenomination risk shocks.

Finally, we test the spillover e¤ects de…ned as the transmission of the foreign redenomination

risk shocks to domestic markets over and above the domestic e¤ects. The results suggest

that Italy and Spain are less a¤ected from spillovers, while France are also a¤ected by foreign

redenomination risk shocks. Given the economic signi…cance of both domestic redenomination

risk shocks and its spillover e¤ect, then this risk is systemic for the euro area.

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ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 31Figure 1. Sovereign Bond Yields and Spreads at 5‐Year Maturity in Italy, Spain, France and Germany (Basis 
points, sample period: 1 Jan. 2008 – 12 Nov. 2013) 

Sovereign yields

5

4

3

2

1

0

I

II

III

IV I

II

III

IV I

II

III

IV I

II

III

IV I

II

III

IV I

II

III IV

I

II

III

IV I

II

III

IV I

II

III

IV I

II

III

IV I

II

III

IV I

II

III

IV

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

IT 5-yr sovereign yield
ES 5-yr sovereign yield
5-yr OIS rate

FR 5-yr sovereign yield
DE 5-yr sovereign yield
5-yr OIS rate

Sovereign spreads

160

120

80

40

0

-40

-80

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

0

800

700

600

500

400

300

200

100

0

-100

I

II

III

IV I

II

III

IV I

II

III

IV I

II

III

IV I

II

III

IV I

II

III IV

I

II

III

IV I

II

III

IV I

II

III

IV I

II

III

IV I

II

III

IV I

II

III IV

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

IT 5-yr sovereign yield spreads
ES 5-yr sovereign yield spreads

FR 5-yr sovereign yield spreads
DE 5-yr sovereign yield spreads

Sources: Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters. 
Note: The sovereign yield spread at 5‐year maturity is the difference between the benchmark bond yield and the Euro Overnight 
Interest  Rate  Swaps  (OIS)  rate  at  5‐year  maturity.  The  CDS  spread  is  US  dollar  denominated.  The  four  vertical  bars  denote  the 
beginning of the sample of this study on 13 September 2011, the day of Mr. Draghi’s speech in London on 26 July 2012 and the 
days of the ECB press conference on 2 August 2012 and 6 September 2012, respectively.

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 32 
 
 
 
 
 
Figure 2. USD‐ and EUR‐denominated CDS spreads at 3‐ and 5‐Year Maturity in Italy, Spain, France and 
Germany (Basis points, sample period: 1 Sept. 2011 – 12 Nov. 2013) 

IT

ES

700

600

500

400

300

200

100

0

250

200

150

100

50

0

3-yr USD-CDS
3-yr EUR-CDS
5-yr USD-CDS
5-yr EUR-CDS

700

600

500

400

300

200

100

0

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

2011

2012

FR

2013

2011

2012

DE

2013

120

100

80

60

40

20

0

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

2011

2012

2013

2011

2012

2013

Sources: Thomson Reuters. 
Notes: The Figure provides the USD‐ and EUR denominated CDS spreads at 3‐ and 5‐year maturity for Italian, Spanish, French and 
German  sovereign  contracts.  The  quanto  CDS  is  the  difference  between  the  USD‐  and  EUR‐denominated  CDS  spread.  The  four 
vertical bars denote the beginning of the sample of this study on 13 September 2011, the day of Mr. Draghi’s speech in London on 
26 July 2012 and the days of the ECB press conference on 2 August 2012 and 6 September 2012, respectively. 

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 33 
 
 
 
 
 
Figure 3. Quanto CDS at 3‐ and 5‐Year Maturity in Italy, Spain, France and Germany  
(Basis points, sample period: 1 Sept. 2011 – 12 Nov. 2013) 

IT

ES

120

100

80

60

40

20

0

120

100

80

60

40

20

0

3-yr Quanto
5-yr Quanto

160

140

120

100

80

60

40

20

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

2011

2012

FR

2013

2011

2012

DE

2013

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

-10

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

2011

2012

2013

2011

2012

2013

Sources: Thomson Reuters. 
Notes: The Figure provides the quanto CDS at 3‐ and 5‐year maturity for Italian, Spanish, French and German sovereign contracts. 
The quanto CDS is the difference between the USD‐ and EUR‐denominated CDS spread. The four vertical bars denote the beginning 
of the sample of this study on 13 September 2011, the day of Mr. Draghi’s speech in London on 26 July 2012 and the days of the 
ECB press conference on 2 August 2012 and 6 September 2012, respectively. 

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 34 
 
 
 
 
Figure 4. The redenomination risk premium at 3‐ and 5‐Year Maturity in Italy, Spain and France 
(Basis points, sample period: 1 Sept. 2011 – 12 Nov. 2013) 

IT

IT

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

120

100

80

60

40

20

0

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

-10

-20

3-yr maturity (lhs)
10-delta USD/EUR option (rhs)

3-yr maturity
5-yr maturity

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

2011

2012

ES

2013

2011

2012

ES

2013

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

2011

2012

FR

2013

120

100

80

60

40

20

0

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

-10

-20

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

2011

2012

FR

2013

10

8

6

4

2

0

10

8

6

4

2

0

10

8

6

4

2

0

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

2011

2012

2013

2011

2012

2013

Sources: Thomson Reuters and own calculations.
Notes:  The  redenomination  risk  at  3(5)‐year  maturity  is  the  difference  between  the  quanto  CDS  for  Italian,  Spanish  and  French 
sovereign  and  the  quanto  CDS  for  German  sovereign  at  3(5)‐year  maturity.  The  10‐delta  USD/EUR  option  measured  to  the  right 
scale is the 10‐delta dollar‐euro option implied volatility either at 1‐year maturity. The four vertical bars denote the beginning of 
the sample of this study on 13 September 2011, the day of Mr. Draghi’s speech in London on 26 July 2012 and the days of the ECB 
press conference on 2 August 2012 and 6 September 2012, respectively. 

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 35 
 
 
 
 
Figure 5. Impact of 1 Standard Deviation Redenomination Risk Shock (IRF) on Sovereign Yield Spreads at 
5‐Year Maturity in Italy, Spain and France  
(Basis points, sample period: 13 Sept. 2011 – 12 Nov. 2013) 

Redenomination risk 

Sovereign spreads

Single country VAR: Italy 

2.8

2.4

2.0

1.6

1.2

0.8

0.4

0.0

2.5

2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

3.0

2.5

2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

0.0

2.5

2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

0.0

2.5

2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

3.0

2.5

2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

0.0

6

5

4

3

2

1

0

-1

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

Single country VAR: Spain 

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

Single country VAR: France 

1.6

1.2

0.8

0.4

0.0

-0.4

-0.8

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

FAVAR: Italy 

8

6

4

2

0

-2

-4

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

FAVAR: Spain 

10

8

6

4

2

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

FAVAR: France 

2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

0.0

-0.5

-1.0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

Notes: This figure reports the impulse response  functions of one standard deviation redenomination risk shock. The shock is identified using the 
recursive  approach  after  estimation  of  a  VAR.  The  single  country  VAR  orders  the  variable  as  follows:  X1  =  US  government  bond  yield  at  5‐year 
maturity, X2 = the US stock market index, X3 = US volatility premium, X4 = US investment grade, X5 = EUR depreciation versus USD 5‐year forward, 
X6 = EUR depreciation versus USD, X7 = 10 delta EUR/USD implied volatility, X8 = Break even inflation rate 5‐yr forward, X9 = German 5‐yr CDS, X10 
= EA 5‐yr OIS, X11 = euro area stock market volatility, X12 = euro area investment grade, X13. KfW‐Bund spread, X14 = Greek sovereign spread, X15 
= CDS or Sovereign yield bid‐ask spread, X16 = Redenomination risk, X17 = Domestic stock market, X18 = CDS or Sovereign yield spreads. The FAVAR 
orders the variable with the following order: X1 = US 1st PC, X2 = FX 1st PC, X3 = EA 1st PC, X4 = German 5‐yr CDS, X5 = EA risk 1st PC, X6 = Greek 
sovereign spread, X7 = CDS bid‐ask spread 1st PC, X8 = Sovereign yield bid‐ask spread 1st PC, X9‐11 = FR/IT/ES Redenomination risk, X12 = Domestic 
stock market 1st PC, X13‐X15 = FR/IT/ES CDS spreads, X16‐X18 = FR/IT/ES Sovereign yield spreads. The variables are described in Appendix A. 

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 36 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Figure 6. Impact of 1 Standard Deviation Redenomination Risk Shock (GIRF) on Sovereign Yield Spreads at 
5‐Year Maturity in Italy, Spain and France  
(Basis points, sample period: 13 Sept. 2011 – 12 Nov. 2013) 

Redenomination risk 

Sovereign spreads 

Single country VAR: Italy 

6

4

2

0

-2

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

Single country VAR: Spain 

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

Single country VAR: France 

2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

0.0

-0.5

-1.0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

FAVAR: Italy 

6

4

2

0

-2

-4

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

FAVAR: Spain 

10

8

6

4

2

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

FAVAR: France 

2

1

0

-1

2.8

2.4

2.0

1.6

1.2

0.8

0.4

0.0

2.8

2.4

2.0

1.6

1.2

0.8

0.4

3.0

2.5

2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

0.0

3.0

2.5

2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

0.0

3.0

2.5

2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

4

3

2

1

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

Notes: This figure reports the generalized impulse response functions of one standard deviation redenomination risk shock. The shock is identified 
using the recursive approach after estimation of a VAR. The single country VAR orders the variable as follows: X1 = US government bond yield at 5‐
year maturity, X2  = the US  stock market  index,  X3  =  US  volatility premium,  X4  =  US investment grade,  X5  =  EUR  depreciation  versus  USD  5‐year 
forward, X6 = EUR depreciation versus USD, X7 = 10 delta EUR/USD implied volatility, X8 = Break even inflation rate 5‐yr forward, X9 = German 5‐yr 
CDS, X10 = EA 5‐yr OIS, X11 = euro area stock market volatility, X12 = euro area investment grade, X13. KfW‐Bund spread, X14 = Greek sovereign 
spread,  X15  =  CDS  or  Sovereign  yield  bid‐ask  spread,  X16  =  Redenomination  risk,  X17  =  Domestic  stock  market,  X18  =  CDS  or  Sovereign  yield 
spreads. The FAVAR orders the variable with the following order: X1 = US 1st PC, X2 = FX 1st PC, X3 = EA 1st PC, X4 = German 5‐yr CDS, X5 = EA risk 1st 
PC, X6 = Greek sovereign spread, X7 = CDS bid‐ask spread 1st PC, X8 = Sovereign yield bid‐ask spread 1st PC, X9‐11 = FR/IT/ES Redenomination risk, 
X12 = Domestic stock market 1st PC, X13‐X15 = FR/IT/ES CDS spreads, X16‐X18 = FR/IT/ES Sovereign yield spreads. The variables are described in 
Appendix A. 

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 37 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Figure 7. Impact of Domestic Redenomination Risk on Sovereign Yield Spreads at 5‐Year Maturity in Italy, 
Spain and France: Historical Decomposition of the Shock from single country VAR  
(Basis points, sample period: 13 Sept. 2011 – 12 Nov. 2013) 

Panel A: Observed and counterfactual levels of 
sovereign yield spreads 

Panel B: Stochastic and deterministic components 

700

600

500

400

300

200

100

0

Actual value
Exc. redenomination risk (a)
Exc. redenomination risk (b)

Italy 
240

200

160

120

80

40

0

-40

Deterministic component
Combination of all shocks (a)
Redenomination risk shock (b)

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

2011

2012

2013

2011

2012

2013

Spain 
300

250

200

150

100

50

0

-50

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

2011

2012

2013

2011

2012

2013

France 
35

30

25

20

15

10

5

0

-5

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

2011

2012

2013

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

2011

2012

2013

Notes: This figure reports the impact of the redenomination risk through counterfactual simulations as described in equations 
16 and 18. Panel A shows the sovereign yield spread and its counterfactual when the redenomination risk is set to zero. Panel 
B shows the impact of the redenomination risk on the sovereign yield spread decomposing the deterministic component from 
the  stochastic  component.  The  counterfactuals  are  obtained  under  the  hypothesis  that  the  redenomination  risk  is  zero.  An 
agnostic linear combination of all shocks is employed to compute the counterfactual dubbed “combination of all shocks (a)”. 
The  redenomination  risk  shock  is  endogenously  determined  to  compute  the  counterfactual  dubbed  “redenomination  risk 
shock (b)”. The variables are described in Appendix A. The three vertical bars denote the day of Mr. Draghi’s speech in London 
on 26 July 2012 and the days of the ECB press conference on 2 August 2012 and 6 September 2012, respectively. 

800

700

600

500

400

300

200

100

0

-100

160

120

80

40

0

-40

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 38 
 
Figure 8. Impact of Domestic and Foreign Redenomination Risk on Sovereign Yield Spreads at 5‐Year 
Maturity in Italy, Spain and France: Historical Decomposition of the Shock from FAVAR  
(Basis points, sample period: 13 Sept. 2011 – 12 Nov. 2013) 

Panel A: Observed and counterfactual levels of 
sovereign yield spreads 

Panel B: Stochastic and deterministic components 

700

600

500

400

300

200

100

0

Italy 

Actual value
Exc. domestic redenomination risk (a)
Exc. domestic and foreign redenomination risk (b)

250

200

150

100

50

0

-50

Spillover effect
Domestic redenomination risk shock
Domestic and foreign redenomination risk shock

III

IV

2011

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

2012

2013

III

IV

2011

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

2012

2013

Spain 

280

240

200

160

120

80

40

0

-40

III

IV

2011

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

2012

2013

III

IV

2011

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

2012

2013

France

50

40

30

20

10

0

-10

800

700

600

500

400

300

200

100

0

-100

160

120

80

40

0

-40

III

IV

2011

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

2012

2013

III

IV

2011

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

2012

2013

Notes: This figure reports the impact of the redenomination risk through counterfactual simulations as described in equation 18. 
Panel A shows the sovereign yield spread and its counterfactual when the redenomination risk is set to zero. Panel B shows the 
impact  of  the  redenomination  risk  on  the  sovereign  yield  spread  decomposing  the  stochastic  component  into  the  domestic 
component and the foreign spillover component. The counterfactual “domestic redenomination risk shock” is obtained under the 
hypothesis that the domestic redenomination risk is zero and the domestic redenomination risk shock is endogenously determined. 
The  counterfactual  “domestic  and  foreign  redenomination  risk  shock”  is  obtained  under  the  hypothesis  that  both  the  domestic 
redenomination  risks  are  zero  and  the  domestic  and  foreign  redenomination  risk  shocks  are  endogenously  determined.  The 
historical decomposition of the spillover (blue solid line) is derived as a difference between the two counterfactuals. The variables 
are described in Appendix A. The three vertical bars denote the day of Mr. Draghi’s speech in London on 26 July 2012 and the days 
of the ECB press conference on 2 August 2012 and 6 September 2012, respectively. 

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 39 
 
 
 
Table 1. Unconditional Correlations of the Variables vis‐à‐vis Redenomination Risk 
(Sample period: 13 Sept. 2011 – 12 Nov. 2013) 

Single country VAR 

Italy 

‐0.062 

0.065 

‐0.030 

0.008 

‐0.001 

0.01 

‐0.043 

0.032 

‐0.179*** 

‐0.037 

‐0.065 

0.112*** 

‐0.038 

0.003 

‐0.021 

1.000 

0.006 

0.092** 

Spain 

‐0.153*** 

‐0.129* 

0.053 

0.093** 

0.013 

0.086** 

0.119*** 

‐0.075* 

0.054 

‐0.109** 

0.122*** 

0.11*** 

0.148*** 

0.095** 

0.054 

1.000 

‐0.31*** 

0.432*** 

France 

‐0.012 

0.049 

‐0.011 

‐0.001 

0.019 

0.04 

0.021 

‐0.026 

IT 

0.044 

‐0.075* 

‐0.005 

‐0.178*** 

0.017 

0.01 

‐0.051 

0.024 

‐0.112*** 

0.392*** 

0.028 

‐0.049 

‐0.004 

0.04 

‐0.047 

‐0.017 

1.000 

0.024 

‐0.042 

1.000 

0.360*** 

‐0.067* 

‐0.087** 

0.024 

0.031 

‐0.004 

0.109*** 

0.121*** 

FAVAR 

ES 

0.104** 

0.081* 

‐0.04 

0.025 

0.149*** 

0.018 

‐0.025 

0.119*** 

0.222*** 

0.360*** 

1.000 

‐0.092** 

0.102** 

0.263*** 

0.327*** 

0.066* 

0.255*** 

0.393*** 

FR 

‐0.033 

‐0.095* 

0.012 

‐0.116*** 

‐0.013 

‐0.047 

‐0.089** 

‐0.056 

1.000 

0.392*** 

0.222*** 

‐0.015 

‐0.073* 

‐0.077* 

‐0.028 

‐0.039 

‐0.052 

0.021 

X1  

X2  

X3  

X4  

X5  

X6  

X7  

X8  

X9  

X10  

X11  

X12  

X13  

X14  

X15  

X16  

X17  

X18  

Notes: This table reports the unconditional correlation coefficients of the variables in first difference vis‐à‐vis the redenomination 
risk.  

The variables of the single country VAR are: X1 = US government bond yield at 5‐year maturity, X2 = the US stock market index, X3 
= US volatility premium, X4 = US investment grade, X5 = EUR depreciation versus USD 5‐year forward, X6 = EUR depreciation versus 
USD, X7 = 10 delta EUR/USD implied volatility, X8 = Break even inflation rate 5‐yr forward, X9 = German 5‐yr CDS, X10 = EA 5‐yr OIS, 
X11 = euro area stock market volatility, X12 = euro area investment grade, X13. KfW‐Bund spread, X14 = Greek sovereign spread, 
X15 = Sovereign yield bid‐ask spread, X16 = Redenomination risk, X17 = Domestic stock market, X18 = Sovereign yield spreads.  

The variables of the FAVAR are: X1 = US 1st PC, X2 = FX 1st PC, X3 = EA 1st PC, X4 = German 5‐yr CDS, X5 = EA risk 1st PC, X6 
= Greek sovereign spread, X7 = CDS bid‐ask spread 1st PC, X8 = Sovereign yield bid‐ask spread 1st PC, X9‐11 = FR/IT/ES 
Redenomination  risk,  X12  =  Domestic  stock  market  1st  PC,  X13‐X15  =  FR/IT/ES  CDS  spreads,  X16‐X18  =  FR/IT/ES 
Sovereign yield spreads.  

The variables are described in Appendix A. *, **, *** denotes statistical significance at 10%, 5% and 1% level, respectively. 

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 40 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
Table 2. Correlation Analysis of the VAR Residuals of the 5‐year CDS and Sovereign Yield Spread vis‐à‐vis 
the Residuals of the Redenomination Risk Equations  
(Sample period: 13 Sept. 2011 – 12 Nov. 2013) 

Single country VAR 

Italy 

‐0.050 

0.079* 

0.013 

0.034 

‐0.039 

‐0.075* 

‐0.044 

‐0.005 

‐0.172*** 

‐0.055 

‐0.069 

Spain 

‐0.155*** 

‐0.133*** 

0.055 

0.09** 

‐0.028 

0.075* 

0.11** 

‐0.078* 

0.045 

‐0.145*** 

0.125*** 

0.136*** 

0.098** 

France 

‐0.028 

0.045 

0.002 

0.003 

‐0.025 

‐0.046 

0.002 

‐0.044 

‐0.089** 

‐0.016 

‐0.015 

‐0.032 

0.165*** 

0.091** 

‐0.025 

0.005 

‐0.025 

1.000 

0.013 

0.087** 

0.051 

1.000 

‐0.288*** 

0.049 

‐0.017 

1.000 

0.01 

‐0.027 

0.092** 

0.419*** 

Italy 

0.072* 

‐0.063 

‐0.038 

‐0.157*** 

0.04 

0.022 

0.048 

0.079 

1.000 

FAVAR 

Spain 

0.130*** 

France 

‐0.043 

0.085** 

‐0.093** 

‐0.057 

0.010 

0.139*** 

0.034 

‐0.017 

0.120*** 

0.002 

‐0.134*** 

0.029 

‐0.032 

0.098** 

‐0.018 

0.414*** 

0.382*** 

0.414*** 

1.000 

0.239*** 

0.382*** 

0.239**** 

‐0.059 

0.098** 

0.100** 

‐0.033 

‐0.223*** 

0.247*** 

0.308*** 

0.1** 

0.163*** 

0.242*** 

0.098** 

0.220*** 

‐0.002 

‐0.002 

1.000 

0.008 

‐0.043 

0.007 

‐0.066 

‐0.078* 

‐0.037 

‐0.073* 

RES_X1  

RES_X2  

RES_X3  

RES_X4  

RES_X5  

RES_X6  

RES_X7  

RES_X8  

RES_X9  

RES_X10  

RES_X11  

RES_X12  

RES_X13  

RES_X14  

RES_X15  

RES_X16  

RES_X17  

RES_X18  

Notes: This table reports the correlation coefficients of the residuals of the VAR vis‐à‐vis the residuals of the redenomination risk 
equations.  

The variables of the single country VAR are: X1 = US government bond yield at 5‐year maturity, X2 = the US stock market index, X3 
= US volatility premium, X4 = US investment grade, X5 = EUR depreciation versus USD 5‐year forward, X6 = EUR depreciation versus 
USD, X7 = 10 delta EUR/USD implied volatility, X8 = Break even inflation rate 5‐yr forward, X9 = German 5‐yr CDS, X10 = EA 5‐yr OIS, 
X11 = euro area stock market volatility, X12 = euro area investment grade, X13. KfW‐Bund spread, X14 = Greek sovereign spread, 
X15 = Sovereign yield bid‐ask spread, X16 = Redenomination risk, X17 = Domestic stock market, X18 = Sovereign yield spreads.  

The variables of the FAVAR are: X1 = US 1st PC, X2 = FX 1st PC, X3 = EA 1st PC, X4 = German 5‐yr CDS, X5 = EA risk 1st PC, X6 
= Greek sovereign spread, X7 = CDS bid‐ask spread 1st PC, X8 = Sovereign yield bid‐ask spread 1st PC, X9‐11 = FR/IT/ES 
Redenomination  risk,  X12  =  Domestic  stock  market  1st  PC,  X13‐X15  =  FR/IT/ES  CDS  spreads,  X16‐X18  =  FR/IT/ES 
Sovereign yield spreads.  

The variables are described in Appendix A. *, **, *** denotes statistical significance at 10%, 5% and 1% level, respectively. 

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 41 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
APPENDIX A: The Data Set 

This appendix provides additional details about the definition, sources and timing of the data used in the 
study. 

Panel A: Main Variables of the single country VAR 
X1 = US government bond yield at 5‐year maturity.  
The  US  government  bond  yield  at  5‐year  maturity  is  United  States  5‐year  government  benchmark  bond 
yield in US dollar provided by Bloomberg. 

X2 = the US stock market index. 
The  US  stock  market  is  the  Thomson  DataStream  Global  Equity  Index  for  the  United  States  provided  by 
Thomson Reuters. 

X3 = US volatility premium.  
The US volatility premium is calculated as the difference between the VIX index (obtained from Thomson 
Reuters) and a measure of realised volatility for the US stock market obtained as a GARCH(1,1) on the daily 
US stock market returns.  

X4 = US investment grade. 
The US investment grade is the spread between the United States corporate BBB and AAA 7‐10‐year (USD) 
Merrill Lynch Bond Index provided by Thomson Reuters. 

X5 = EUR depreciation versus USD 5‐year forward.  
The  euro  depreciation  versus  USD  5‐year  forward  is  computed  using  the  covered  interest  rate  parity 
condition as a difference between the euro area and the US OIS risk free rates at 5‐year maturity. The Euro 
and USD Overnight Interest Swaps (OIS) rate at 5‐year maturity are provided by Bloomberg.  

X6 = EUR depreciation versus USD.  
The exchange rate is expressed as units of euro per US dollar and is obtained from the ECB. 

X7 = 10‐delta EUR/USD implied volatility.  
The 10‐delta dollar‐euro option implied volatility is the difference in the US Dollar/Euro 1‐month or 1‐year 
Black‐Scholes implied volatilities of an out‐of‐the‐money 10‐delta call option and an out‐of‐the‐money 10‐
delta put option for OTC currency option markets provided by Bloomberg. A dollar‐euro put (call) option is 
a European option of selling (buying) euro at the contractual option strike price in an exchange of US dollars 
at the option maturity. 

X8 = Break‐even inflation rate 5‐yr forward.  
The  break‐even  inflation  rate  5‐yr  forward  is  the  five‐year  forward  break‐even  inflation  rate  five  years 
ahead provided by the ECB. 

X9 = German 5‐yr CDS.  
The German CDS spreads are obtained from Bloomberg. They are midmarket indicative prices for five‐year 
sovereign CDS contracts. 

X10 = EA 5‐yr OIS.  
The EA 5‐yr OIS is the Euro OIS rate at 5‐year maturity provided by Bloomberg. 
X11 = Euro area stock market volatility. 
The euro area stock market volatility is the realised volatility for the euro area stock market obtained as a 
GARCH(1,1) on the daily euro area stock market returns provided by Thomson DataStream.  

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 42 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
X12 = Euro area investment grade.  
The euro area investment grade is the spread between the European Monetary Union corporate BBB and 
AAA 7‐10‐year (Euro) Merrill Lynch Bond Index provided by Thomson DataStream. 

X13 = KfW‐Bund spread.  
The  KfW‐Bund  spread  is  the  difference  between  the  5‐year  KfW  (`Kreditanstalt  für  Wiederaufbau')  bond 
and  the  German  sovereign  bond  (i.e.  Bund).  They  are  both  guaranteed  by  the  German  government  and, 
therefore, carry the same default risk. Any differences between agency and government bond yields should 
reflect international investors' preference for assets with the lowest liquidity risk.  

X14 = Greek sovereign spread.  
The Greek sovereign spread is the difference between the 10‐year Greek sovereign bond and the 10‐year 
Euro OIS provided by Bloomberg. 

X15 = Sovereign yield bid‐ask spread.  
The sovereign bid‐ask spread is the difference between the 5‐year bid and ask EUR‐denominated sovereign 
yield provided by Bloomberg.  

X16 = Market perception of redenomination risk.  
Market perception of redenomination risk is defined as a difference between the quanto CDS of Italy, Spain 
or  France  and  the  quanto  CDS  of  Germany.  The  USD‐  and  EUR‐denominated  CDS  at  3‐year  maturity  are 
provided by Thomson Reuters. 

X17 = Domestic stock market.  
The  domestic  stock  market  is  the  Thomson  DataStream  Global  Equity  Index  for  the  country  provided  by 
Thomson Reuters. 

X18 = Sovereign yield spreads. 
The  sovereign  yield  spreads  are  the  difference  between  the  5‐year  EUR‐denominated  sovereign  bond  of 
Italy, Spain and France and the 5‐year Euro OIS rate provided by Bloomberg. They are midmarket prices for 
five‐year sovereigns. 

Panel B: Main Variables of the FAVAR 

X1 = US 1st PC 
US  1st  PC  is  the  first  principal  component  of  US  government  bond  yield  at  5‐year  maturity,  the  US  stock 
market index, US volatility premium and US investment grade. 

X2 = FX 1st PC 
FX 1st PC is the first principal component of EUR depreciation versus USD 5‐year forward, EUR depreciation 
versus USD, EUR/USD implied volatility or 10‐delta EUR/USD implied volatility.  

X3 = EA 1st PC is the first principal component of break‐even inflation rate 5‐yr forward and the EA 5‐yr OIS. 

X4 = German 5‐yr CDS 
The German CDS spreads are midmarket indicative prices for five‐year sovereign CDS contracts.  

X5 = EA risk 1st PC 
EA  risk  1st  PC  is  the  first  principal  component  of  euro  area  stock  market  volatility,  euro  area  investment 
grade and KfW‐Bund spread. 

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 43 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
X6 = Greek sovereign spread 
The Greek sovereign spread is the difference between the 10‐year Greek sovereign bond and the 10‐year 
Euro OIS rate. 

X7 = CDS bid‐ask spread 1st PC 
CDS bid‐ask spread 1st PC is the first principal component of Italian, Spanish and French CDS bid‐ask spread. 

X8 = Sovereign yield bid‐ask spread 1st PC 
Sovereign  yield  bid‐ask  spread  1st  PC  is  the  first  principal  component  of  Italian,  Spanish  and  French 
sovereign yield bid‐ask spread. 

X9‐11 = IT/ES/FR Market Perception of Redenomination risk 
Market perception of redenomination risk is defined as a difference between the quanto CDS of Italy, Spain 
or France and the quanto CDS of Germany at 3‐year maturity. 

X12 = Domestic stock market 1st PC 
Domestic stock market 1st PC is the first principal component of Italian, Spanish and French domestic stock 
markets 

X13‐X15 = IT/ES/FR CDS spreads 
The CDS spreads for Italy, Spain and France are midmarket indicative prices for five‐year USD‐denominated 
sovereign CDS contracts. 

X16‐X18 = IT/ES/FR Sovereign yield spreads.  
The  sovereign  yield  spreads  are  the  difference  between  the  5‐year  EUR‐denominated  sovereign  bond  of 
Italy, Spain and France and the 5‐year Euro OIS rate. They are midmarket prices for five‐year sovereigns. 

Variables used as robustness check: 
• 

The US price‐earnings ratio is based on the Thomson DataStream Global Equity Index for the United 
States provided by Thomson Reuters.  
The net flows (inflows minus outflows) into mutual funds are obtained from EPFR Global. 
The  CDS  spreads  for  the  United  States  are  provided  by  Bloomberg.  They  are  midmarket  indicative 
prices for five‐year CDS contracts. The CDS contract references the sovereign. 
The credit  spreads of  other  sovereigns is computed as  an  average  of CDS spreads  all the other euro 
area countries.  
The  EUR/USD  implied  volatility,  namely  the  US  Dollar/Euro  1‐month  delta‐neutral  straddle  Black‐
Scholes implied volatility for OTC currency option markets provided by Bloomberg. 
The 10‐delta dollar‐euro option 1‐year implied volatility provided by Bloomberg. 
The local expected budget deficit to GDP ratio  is computed  as  a ratio between the expected budget 
balance and the expected nominal GDP; the latter in turn computed using expected inflation and GDP 
growth. The data provider is consensus forecast. The observations are monthly. 
The German sovereign spread is the difference between the 5‐year Bund and the 5‐year Euro OIS rate 
provided by Bloomberg. They are midmarket prices for five‐year sovereigns. 
The commodity prices are gold and oil provided by Thomson Reuters.  
The redenomination risk at 5‐year maturity is defined as a difference between the quanto CDS of Italy, 
Spain or France and the quanto CDS of Germany at 5‐year maturity. The USD‐ and EUR‐denominated 
CDS at 5‐year maturity are provided by Thomson Reuters. 
The first two principle components extracted from the global and exchange rate variables specifically 
for the FAVAR. 
The first two principle components extracted from the regional variables specifically for the FAVAR. 

• 
• 

• 

• 

• 
• 

• 

• 
• 

• 

• 

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 44 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Appendix B: Regression analysis using first differences 

Following Longstaff, et al. (2011), who regress the monthly changes in the sovereign CDS spreads on a large 
set of explanatory variables, we regress the daily changes in the 5‐year sovereign yield spreads on the daily 
changes  of  the  redenomination  risk  controlling  for  a  large  set  of  domestic,  regional  and  global  variables 
described in Appendix A. Table B1 reports the coefficients and the standard errors based on Newey‐West 
heteroskedasticity‐ and autocorrelation‐consistent estimates of the covariance matrix and adjusted R² for 
each of the six regressions. 
Focusing  on  the  redenomination  risk,  the  change  in  local  quanto  CDS  relative  to  Germany  is  strongly 
statistically significant (at 1 percent level) for Italian and Spanish sovereigns with coefficients amounting to 
0.9 and 1.9, respectively. This variable is not statistically significant in explaining French sovereign spreads 
instantaneously.  This  implies  that  an  increase  in  the  break‐up  risk  measured  by  the  identified  variable  is 
clearly priced in the Italian and Spanish sovereign debt markets. Conversely, the EUR/USD volatility skew is 
not statistically significant. 
Local stock market returns are also strongly statistically significant for all sovereigns (at 1 percent level) and 
with the negative sign, indicating that good news for the local stock market is also good news for sovereign 
yield spreads. 
The  German  CDS  spread  is  likewise  very  important  in  explain  variations  in  sovereign  credit  risk.  All  the 
coefficients are statistically significant (at 1 percent level) acting as a common factor for euro area credit 
spreads as well as sovereign yield spreads. On the contrary the US variables including the US CDS spread 
(here  not  reported)  are  generally  not  statistically  significant,  except  for  the  US  stock  market  returns  on 
Spanish sovereign yield spreads. This suggests that regional forces in the euro area are at play to explain 
sovereign spreads. 
Another variable which is statistically significant particularly for the sovereign debt market is the euro area 
investment grade spreads. The coefficients are negative being potentially the result of substitution effects 
between sovereign and corporate bonds during the sample period, as shocks induce investors to reallocate 
capital across different asset classes. 
Interesting is also the negative coefficient on the OIS rate, which suggest that the pass‐through of monetary 
policy on sovereign yields is not complete at least instantaneously. 
Finally, the changes in sovereign yield spreads are persistent for Italy and Spain. 
Given  the  daily  frequency  of  the  sample  size,  the  adjusted  R²  are  fairly  high.  The  adjusted  R²  ranges 
between 25 and 50 percent.  

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 45 
 
 
Table B1. The Determinants of Sovereign Yields Spreads at 5‐Year Maturity in Italy, Spain and France: OLS 
Regression in First Difference (Sample period: 13 Sept. 2011 – 12 Nov. 2013) 

Lagged dependent variable 

s.e. 

Redenomination risk 

s.e. 

Domestic stock market 

s.e. 

Bid‐ask spread 

s.e. 

Greek sovereign spread 

s.e. 

KfW‐Bund spread 

s.e. 

EA investment grade 

s.e. 

EA implied volatility 

s.e. 

EA 5‐yr OIS 

s.e. 

German 5‐yr CDS 

s.e. 

Break even inflation rate 5‐yr FWD 

s.e. 

10 delta EUR/USD implied volatility 

s.e. 

EUR depreciation versus USD 

s.e. 

EUR depreciation versus USD FWD 

s.e. 

US investment grade 

s.e. 

US volatility premium 

s.e. 

US stock market 

s.e. 

US Treasury market 

s.e. 

Adjusted R^2 

Number of obs. 

Italy 

0.123** 

(0.041) 

0.899*** 

(0.236) 

‐4.788*** 

(0.571) 

0.139 

(0.594) 

‐0.002 

(0.006) 

0.171 

(0.157) 

‐0.293** 

(0.122) 

0.060 

(0.535) 

‐0.45** 

(0.208) 

1.52*** 

(0.334) 

0.097 

(0.148) 

2.002 

(2.631) 

‐0.444 

(0.629) 

‐0.118 

(0.195) 

‐0.163 

(0.256) 

1.069 

(1.455) 

1.087 

(0.873) 

‐0.205 

(0.184) 

47.7 

573 

Spain 
Local variables 
0.088*** 

(0.035) 

1.867*** 

(0.341) 

‐2.613*** 

(0.449) 

0.671** 

(0.305) 

Regional variables 
‐0.006 

(0.005) 

‐0.046 

(0.191) 

‐0.151 

(0.108) 

0.857 

(0.521) 

‐0.792** 

(0.227) 

1.548*** 

(0.277) 

‐0.012 

(0.12) 

Exchange rate and global variables 
0.338 

(2.814) 

‐0.017 

(0.649) 

0.195 

(0.161) 

‐0.028 

(0.232) 

0.699 

(1.418) 

1.566** 

(0.825) 

0.118 

(0.187) 

46.2 

573 

France 

0.000 

(0.061) 

‐0.031 

(0.117) 

‐0.435*** 

(0.285) 

1.239** 

(0.507) 

0.000 

(0.003) 

‐0.084 

(0.096) 

‐0.291*** 

(0.075) 

‐0.016 

(0.202) 

‐0.33*** 

(0.127) 

0.792*** 

(0.175) 

0.064 

(0.073) 

0.370 

(1.471) 

‐0.399 

(0.291) 

0.157 

(0.097) 

0.272* 

(0.158) 

‐0.342 

(0.519) 

0.082 

(0.345) 

‐0.013 

(0.102) 

25.6 

573 

Notes: This table reports the coefficients and the Newey‐West HAC standard errors for the indicated regression explanatory 
variables. The variables are described in Appendix A.

ECB Working Paper 1785, April 2015 46 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
Acknowledgements 
The paper was presented at the Second International Conference on Sovereign Bond Markets organised by the ECB, Research Center 
SAFE Goethe University Frankfurt, the Waseda Center for Finance Research and the NYU Stern Salomon Center for the Study of 
Financial Institutions in Frankfurt am Main on 10-11 March 2015. We would like to thank Gianni Amisano, Kentaro Iwatsubo, Ivan 
Jaccard, Marek Jarocinski, Michael Joyce, Bartosz Mackowiak, Stefan Nagel, Tuomas Peltonen and Oreste Tristani for comments and 
discussions and Renate Dreiskena for excellent research assistance. The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and do 
not necessarily reflect those of the European Central Bank or the Eurosystem.  

Roberto A. De Santis 
European Central Bank; e-mail: roberto.de_santis@ecb.europa.eu 

© European Central Bank, 2015 

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ISSN 
ISBN 
DOI 
EU catalogue number 

1725-2806 (online) 
978-92-899-1598-4 
10.2866/619277 
QB-AR-15-025-EN-N