Quantify the quantitative easing: Impact on bonds and corporate debt issuance

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Todorov, Karamfil
• 署名单位: University of London; London School Economics & Political Science
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-405X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2019.08.003
• 发表日期: 2020
• 页码: 340-358
• 关键词: Quantitative easing; Corporate Sector Purchase Programme; ECB; Bond market; Corporate debt issuance

摘要

This paper studies the impact of the European Central Bank's (ECB) Corporate Sector Purchase Programme (CSPP) announcement on prices, liquidity, and debt issuance in the European corporate bond market using a data set on bond transactions from Euroclear. I find that the quantitative easing (QE) programme increased prices and liquidity of bonds eligible to be purchased substantially. Bond yields dropped on average by 30 basis points (bps) (8%) after the CSPP announcement. Tri-party repo turnover rose by 8.15 million USD (29%), and bilateral turnover went up by 7.05 million USD (72%). Bid-ask spreads also showed significant liquidity improvement in eligible bonds. QE was successful in boosting corporate debt issuance. Firms issued 2.19 billion EUR (25%) more in QE-eligible debt after the CSPP announcement, compared to other types of debt. Surprisingly, corporates used the attracted funds mostly to increase dividends. These effects were more pronounced for longer-maturity, lower-rated bonds, and for more credit-constrained, lower-rated firms. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.