An Index of Financial Market Stress for the United Kingdom

Abstract

We construct and develop a new financial market stress index using twenty-three headline U.K. financial data series. A logistic regression framework provides a parsimonious representation of financial market stress in the U.K. based on the market dynamics around the time of Bank of England crisis-alleviating economic interventions. Our results present clear evidence that the Bank of England’s swift and decisive actions stemmed financial market stress as measured by the stress index.