Sovereign bond and CDS market contagion: A story from the Eurozone crisis

We examine the asymmetric and nonlinear nature of the cross- and intra-market linkages of eleven EMU sovereign bond and CDS markets during 2006-2018. By adopting the excess correlation concept of Bekaert et al. (2005) and the local Gaussian correlation approach of Tjøstheim and Hufthammer (2013), we find that contagion phenomena occurred during two major phases. The first, extends from late 2009 to mid 2011 and concerns the outright contagion transmission from EMU South bond markets towards all European CDS markets. The second, is during the revived fears of a Greek exit in November 2011 and is characterized by contagion from (i) CDS spreads in the EMU South towards bond yields in the same bloc and Belgium, and (ii) from Italian and Spanish CDS spreads towards all European CDS spreads. Consistent with their “too big to bail out” status, Italy and Spain emerge as pivotal for the evolution of sovereign credit risk across the Eurozone. Our examination of the relevant mechanisms, highlights the importance of credit risk over liquidity risk, and the containment effect of the naked CDS ban.