This paper aims to contribute to the growing pool of literature on the spillover effects of the European Central Bank’s (un)conventional monetary policies on the exchange rate, sovereign bond and equity markets of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland (CEE-3 countries), which are collectively known as the CEE-3 countries. The study is conducted using daily data from January 2010 to September 2019. Our results indicate that the financial markets of the CEE-3 countries have been strongly influenced by the nonstandard measures enacted by the European Central Bank, particularly those involving purchases of euro-area sovereign debt. The strongest spillover effects were identified for the Securities Markets Program, while the effects from the Outright Monetary Transactions program turned out to be the most durable. At the same time, the financial markets of the CEE-3 countries were found to have been largely unaffected by interest rate changes enacted by the European Central Bank.

No abstract

Safe assets are recognized as being the cornerstone of contemporary financial systems. Due to financial globalization and massive international capital flows, they transformed into global safe assets, meaning that both demand and supply sides can be created by international investors. The article consists of two main parts. The first one concentrates on the theoretical issues of safe assets: definitions, attributes, categories of investors who search for them, as well as categories of suppliers. The theoretical considerations lead to the conclusions that only debt instruments can be used as safe assets, and due to limited substitutability between private and public issues, only the latter can perform this function properly, especially in times of stress. In the context of global safe asset considerations, it seems reasonable that only countries issuing reserve currencies can become public issuers of safe assets. The empirical analysis presented in the second part of the article confirms the theoretical predictions. A study of sovereign bond yield differentials conducted for two groups of countries (issuers of reserve currency and non‑issuers but possessing the highest credit ratings) shows that in the period 2005-2017, the spreads in the first group were depressed by the mere fact they held the status of a reserve currency issuer.

Streszczenie: Tematem artykułu są aktywa bezpieczne (safe assets), definiowane jako płynne instrumenty finansowe, głównie dłużne, które gwarantują inwestorom zachowanie wartości w trakcie niekorzystnych zjawisk gospodarczych. Celem artykułu jest ocena kształtowania się podstawowych determinant podaży aktywów bezpiecznych, tj.: relacji długu publicznego do PKB, PKB per capita, stopy inflacji, salda na rachunku obrotów bieżących, rozwoju rynku finansowego oraz stabilności politycznej kraju w kontekście podmiotowej struktury globalnej podaży publicznych safe assets. Analizę czynników przeprowadzono w okresie 1989-2018 (30 lat) dla Stanów Zjednoczonych, Japonii, Wielkiej Brytanii, Niemiec i Szwajcarii. Wybrane kraje posiadają najwyższe oceny ratingowe oraz status emitenta waluty rezerwowej zgodnie z klasyfikacją Międzynarodowego Funduszu Walutowego. Na podstawie przeprowadzo

The euro area crisis was characterised by a negative feedback loop between banks and sovereigns. The paper aims to indicate the genesis of this phenomenon and to determine the scale of its operation during the crisis and post-crisis conditions, as well as to identify the threats it brings. In addition, the paper discusses the actions that have been taken so far at the euro area level to reduce the feedback loop and the existing challenges in this area. The following hypothesis has been formulated: in the post-crisis conditions the euro area remains vulnerable to the sovereign-bank nexus, which in particular stems from the very legacy of the crisis, bank-based financial system, as well as incomplete reforms of the euro area institutional architecture. The research methods include data selection and evaluation as well as descriptive statistics. The main contribution of the study stems from the adoption of a post-crisis perspective and the assessment of the loop with the use of the most recent data and in relation to the crisis period. The results show that in the post-crisis period, a reduction in interconnectedness has been observed, although it has not been evenly experienced by all euro area countries. At the same time, despite some progress in recent years, institutional reforms aimed at breaking the sovereign-bank nexus are far from complete.