Contagion Effects of the Subprime Crisis in the European NYSE-Euronext Markets

This paper presents three tests of contagion of the US subprime crisis to the European markets of the NYSE-Euronext group. Copula models are used to analyse dependence structures between the US’s and the other markets in the sample, in the pre-crisis and in the subprime crisis periods. The first test assesses the existence of contagion on the relevant markets’ indices, the second checks the homogeneity of contagion intensities, and the third compares contagion in financial and in industrial sectors’ indices. Results suggest that contagion exists, and is equally felt, in most markets and that investors anticipated a spreading of the financial crisis to the real economy, long before such dissemination was observable.