Abstract:The main focus of this paper rests on the event study and SVAR analysis of quantitative easing that was initiated as a reaction to the financial crisis at the turn of 2008/2009 that finally ended in 2014. The Fed was virtually unable to continue with its conventional monetary policy regime in environment of zero-bound threshold, where there is no easy way to decrease main monetary policy rate any further. As a reaction to this limitation, the Fed started to practice quantitative easing and other unconventional measures. Event study examines changes in yields of purchased assets, namely US Treasuries, MBS and agency debt, and on two-day event window of the OIS and yield spreads quantifies imminent impact of QE announcements and relevant chairman speeches. Following VAR model and impulse-response functions, I examine the impact of QE and its persistency on purchased asset and on alternative asset classes in the framework of various transmission channels such as signalling, portfolio-balancing and liquidity channels. In this study I found non-negligible impact of QE on purchased assets in both models through all waves of QE and time persistency patterns in IRFs part. Furthermore, some evidence for portfolio-balancing channel and other related channels was found.

This paper analyses the effects of the ECB´s Public sector purchase programme (PSPP) on portfolios of the Eurozone investors. The ECB claims that the PSPP works mainly through the portfolio balance channel when the conditions on the asset markets are changed by the presence of a bidding central bank and investors are under those conditions forced to reallocate their portfolio to the state that better corresponds to ECB-changed market conditions and their preferences. This paper incorporates counterfactual analysis approach rather than analysis of direct change of prices and yields of given assets and uses sectoral data regression analysis of asset holdings of different investors in the Eurozone. This study addresses questions regarding size and direction of investors’ reallocations – what types of investors were acting as the main counterparts to the ECB on the market for government bonds and what asset classes were preferred and chosen as an alternative by investors in the Eurozone to reallocate their funds. The series of obtained regression estimates and counterfactual analysis graphic representation answers to questions mentioned above and identifies a nonnegligible effect of the PSPP on the rebalancing of government bond portfolios towards riskier corporate bonds and equities across investor types in major Eurozone countries.

This paper discusses the effects of the ECB´s asset purchase programmes (APPs) on the SER spread, while the main focus is given to detail intraday analysis of implementation of the Public Sector Purchase Programme (PSPP). The SER spread is perceived as an important indicator of interbank trust in the Eurozone and its elevated level normally signals distortion and mistrust among commercial banks with a power to spill over into the whole financial sector. Recent development on interbank markets and especially within monetary policy in the Eurozone could have impaired the ability of the SER spread to act as a proxy for global systemic risk. The SER spread in this study was constructed and calculated using relevant European financial data and the consequent analysis was made on intraday and high-frequency (HF) 2015-2017 data. The ECB´s APP, mainly PSPP, together with other instruments of monetary policy have impact on both legs of the SER spread and this paper tries to identify and quantify the degree of this effect by detailed HF market data analysis. HF intraday approach analysis is also being implemented in order to identify which leg of the SER spread was decisive in determining the SER spread change in the first three years of the PSPP implementation. Whether it was the "sovereign bond-based leg" directly affected by the ECB's PSPP purchases or the "interbank lending / STIR-based leg".

This paper analyses the effects of the ECB Corporate Sector Purchase Programme (CSPP) on yields of corporate sector bonds and its impact on the corporate sector's debt markets. The CSPP started as a part of an existing asset purchase programme and significantly affected corporate bond markets. Any research undertaken in this area of the ECB's respective actions is fairly limited due to the restrained access to data and its OTC nature. This paper analyses CSPP effects by using two distinct methods-a detailed regressioncontrolled event study and an impulse-response analysis of constructed VAR models. This study addresses questions regarding time, size and place of effects caused by the CSPP on corporate bond markets and deals in detail with related issues and related economic theory backgrounds. A series of obtained sector, country and company-specific results gives us a picture of the non-negligible impact of the CSPP on purchased bonds and of the size and persistency of stock and flow effects of the ECB's actions.