Roland Bouillot investigates financial fragmentation in the euro area

Roland Bouillot, PhD researcher in financial economics at UCLouvain-LIDAM/LFIN, is investigating the dynamics of financial fragmentation in the euro area under the supervision of Professors Bertrand Candelon and Clemens Kool.

His research focuses on differences in sovereign borrowing costs across euro area countries and, more specifically, on the point at which these costs stop moving together and individual countries begin to diverge from the group.

Combining macroeconomics, finance and machine learning, Roland’s research shows that financial fragmentation is not limited to periods of crisis or to countries traditionally associated with higher financial vulnerabilities. Countries with historically close financial links, such as Belgium and France, can also gradually move apart.

Building on these findings, Roland is developing an indicator designed to detect emerging changes in financial fragmentation at an early stage, with the aim of identifying potential divergences before they develop into broader financial instability.

This research contributes to a better understanding of the evolution of financial integration within the euro area and of the factors that can lead countries sharing the same currency to experience increasingly different financing conditions.

We congratulate Roland on this important research milestone and wish him every success for the final stage of his PhD.