Robert Blotevogel
Function/Position
Team Lead, Country Analysis
Robert Blotevogel is a team lead in the Economic Risk Analysis division at the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). Before joining the ESM in 2020, he spent ten years at the International Monetary Fund where his assignments included Resident Representative to Tunisia and senior economist in the Fiscal Affairs Department. His published research articles focus on income inequality and monetary policy in low-income countries.
Robert was also an Economic Adviser at the Royal Bank of Scotland in Edinburgh during the global financial crisis. He holds an MPhil from the University of Cambridge and the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.
My blog entries
My working papers
Working papers
Asset purchases and sovereign risk premia in the euro area during the pandemic
We analyse the impact of ECB asset purchases on sovereign risk premia during the Covid-19 pandemic. Using an enhanced event study design, we trace the impact of asset purchases over time, distinguishing between announcements, expectations, and implementation effects. The analysis draws on a new granular cross-country dataset of the ECB’s asset purchases and market expectations. We find large announcement effects, particularly in countries with lower sovereign credit ratings. Expectations about the final size of ECB asset purchases (‘the stock’) and actually implemented net purchases (‘the flows’) affected risk premia at the time of severe market stress with large cross-country variations. Overall, the ECB’s asset purchases were highly effective in warding off risks of financial fragmentation in the euro area during the pandemic.