Essays on Credit Risk: European studies in the context of the global financial crisis

Given the major role of credit risk in the recent financial crisis, this thesis focuses on analysing different perspectives of credit risk in Europe during the financial crisis. We consider different markets: Credit Default Swap (CDS), options on equities and exchange rates, and finally, the equity markets. We also look at the impact on different entities: corporates, banks and sovereigns however, we focus more on banks.