This study investigates the extent to which diplomatic relations affected merger and acquisition (M&A) activities in the European Union during the years 2001–2019. Implementing a gravity model, we find a positive relationship between diplomatic distance and M&A activities meaning that a worsenin...
This study investigates the extent to which diplomatic relations affected merger and acquisition (M&A) activities in the European Union during the years 2001–2019. Implementing a gravity model, we find a U-inverted relationship between diplomatic distance and M&A activities: (i) a worsening in d...
This paper develops Bayesian econometric methods for posterior inference in non-parametric mixed frequency VARs using additive regression trees. We argue that regression tree models are ideally suited for macroeconomic nowcasting in the face of extreme observations, for instance those produced b...
The paper assesses the impact of adding information on financial cycles on the output gap estimates for eight advanced economies using two unobserved components models: a reduced form extended Hodrick-Prescott filter, and a standard semi-structural unobserved components model. To complement thes...
Response management to the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak requires to answer several forecasting tasks. For hospital managers, a major one is to anticipate the likely needs of beds in intensive care in a given catchment area one or two weeks ahead, starting as early as possible in the evolution of the epid...
The economic crisis caused by the covid-19 pandemic is unprecedented in recent history. We contribute to a growing literature investigating the economic consequences of covid-19 by showing how unemployment-related online searches across the EU27 reacted to the introduction of lock-downs. We expl...
While green bonds are becoming increasingly popular in the corporate finance practice, little is known about their implications and effectiveness in terms of issuers’ environmental engagement. Using matched bond-issuer data, we test whether green bond issues are associated to a reduction in tota...
We examine time-invariant and time-varying market integration across European stock markets. Market integration has been increasing especially during the crisis period. Among others, market capitalization, technological developments and overall political uncertainty drive financial integration a...
The purpose of the study is to estimate the short term reaction of equity and CDS prices of a sample of European banks to various events and announcements, such as bail-ins, recapitalisations, and the proposal and final agreement of the EU reform package of prudential and resolution rules in ban...
Estimated DSGE models tend to ascribe a significant and often predominant part of a country's trade balance (TB) dynamics to domestic drivers ("shocks"), suggesting foreign factors to be only of secondary importance. This paper revisits the result based on more agnostic approaches to shock trans...