This paper provides empirical evidence in support of the view that the quality of institutions is an important determinant of long-term growth of European countries. When also taking into account the initial level of GDP per capita and government debt, cross-country institutional differences can...

We assess Japan’s sovereign credit rating dynamics and its long-term outlook using market implied and fundamental rating models. Japan’s recent market-implied ratings, which are based on government bond prices and Credit Default Swap (CDS) spreads, have outperformed actual ratings and this...

This paper aims to contribute to the ESM's capacity to monitor sovereign vulnerabilities in the EFSF/ESM programme countries. The purpose is to early identify a build-up of sovereign vulnerabilities, which may threaten countries' repayment capacity. The assessment is based on a wide set of...