Three essays in applied empirical economics

Each of the three chapters of this thesis is related to a specific aspect of financing and concerns, respectively, governments, corporations, and households. The first chapter studies the determinants of euro-denominated Central and Eastern European (CEE) government bond spreads that reflect the financing costs incurred by these countries. The second chapter turns to the corporate sector and analyses whether corporate debt markets in the euro area are converging. In this way we assess whether corporations face similar financing conditions with respect to bank loan and bond interest rates. Chapter 3 investigates households’ withdrawing of home equity to access their housing wealth as an additional source of finance. The three chapters of this thesis are self-contained and can be read independently of each other.