Macroeconomic Effects from Sovereign Risk vs. Knightian Uncertainty
Ruben Staffa
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 27,
2023
Abstract
This paper compares macroeconomic effects of Knightian uncertainty and risk using policy shocks for the case of Italy. Drawing on the ambiguity literature, I use changes in the bid-ask spread and mid-price of government bonds as distinct measures for uncertainty and risk. The identification exploits the quasi-pessimistic behavior under ambiguity-aversion and the dealer market structure of government bond markets, where dealers must quote both sides of the market. If uncertainty increases, ambiguity-averse dealers will quasi-pessimistically quote higher ask and lower bid prices – increasing the bid-ask spread. In contrast, a pure change in risk shifts the risk-compensating discount factor which is well approximated by the change in bond mid-prices. I evaluate economic effects of the two measures within an instrumental variable local projection framework. The main findings are threefold. First, the resulting shock time series for uncertainty and risk are uncorrelated with each other at the intraday level, however, upon aggregation to monthly level the measures become correlated. Second, uncertainty is an important driver of economic aggregates. Third, macroeconomic effects of risk and uncertainty are similar, except for the response of prices. While sovereign risk raises inflation, uncertainty suppresses price growth – a result which is in line with increased price rigidity under ambiguity.
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Eine Hochfrequenzanalyse zur Abgrenzung von überlagernden Effekten am Beispiel des Ausfallrisikos italienischer Staatsanleihen
Ruben Staffa
Wirtschaft im Wandel,
No. 2,
2023
Abstract
Die wirtschaftliche Aktivität und das Ausfallrisiko staatlicher Schulden beeinflussen sich gegenseitig. Sinkt die wirtschaftliche Aktivität einer Volkswirtschaft, steigt wegen fallender Steuereinnahmen das Risiko, dass der Staat Zinszahlungen und Tilgungen auf Staatsanleihen nicht zurückzahlen kann. Umgekehrt kann das staatliche Ausfallrisiko seinerseits die wirtschaftliche Aktivität beeinflussen. Steigt das Ausfallrisiko, geraten Banken unter Druck, die Staatsanleihen in ihren Bilanzen führen, und reduzieren die Kreditvergabe an Unternehmen. In der Konsequenz sinkt die wirtschaftliche Aktivität. Dieser Beitrag nutzt hochfrequente News-Ticker-Daten zur Ableitung politischer Ereignisse und davon ausgelöster Fluktuationen im Staatsschuldenrisiko. Diese allein politisch bedingten Fluktuationen ermöglichen es, den Effekt des Staatsschuldenrisikos auf die wirtschaftliche Aktivität zu messen, ohne dass die Schätzung von der gegenläufigen Beziehung der Variablen beeinträchtigt wird. Das Vorgehen wird am Beispiel Italiens erläutert.
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Physical Climate Change and the Sovereign Risk of Emerging Economies
Hannes Böhm
Journal of Economic Structures,
2022
Abstract
I show that rising temperatures can detrimentally affect the sovereign creditworthiness of emerging economies. To this end, I collect long-term monthly temperature data of 54 emerging markets. I calculate a country’s temperature deviation from its historical average, which approximates present-day climate change trends. Running regressions from 1994m1 to 2018m12, I find that higher temperature anomalies lower sovereign bond performances (i.e., increase sovereign risk) significantly for countries that are warmer on average and have lower seasonality. The estimated magnitudes suggest that affected countries likely face significant increases in their sovereign borrowing costs if temperatures continue to rise due to climate change. However, results indicate that stronger institutions can make a country more resilient towards temperature shocks, which holds independent of a country’s climate.
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