A European Central Bank paper, published on February 3, attempts to quantify the effects of regional and international risk factors on the debt profile of eurozone sovereign nations.

Roberto De Santis, the paper's author, examines why sovereign debt spreads for countries with solid fiscal fundamentals rise during the financial crisis. Since the intensification of the crisis in September 2008, long-term government bond yields for Greece, Ireland and Portugal relative to the German Bund have been