Hedging Corporate Bonds

We examine Treasury bond and stock index futures, the swap curve and two types of hypothetical corporate bond assets as alternative hedging instruments for portfolios of corporate bonds. Conducting ex post and ex ante tests we find evidence that credit quality and maturity are important sources of basis risk when hedging corporate bonds whose credit rating are below triple A. We conclude that a new corporate hedging instrument may be useful for those wishing to hedge corporate bond portfolios provided that transaction costs are not too high relative to existing futures contracts.     

Does sovereign risk matter? New evidence from eurozone corporate bond ratings and zero-volatility spreads

In this paper, we empirically examine if sovereign risk matters for corporate bonds in developed economies. Using a unique panel data sample of 897 corporate bonds from eleven countries within the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), we investigate sovereign and corporate ratings as well as zero-volatility spreads (z-spreads). In the time period from March 2006 to June 2012, we find sovereign risk to be a significant driver of corporate risk. The effect is stronger for companies with domestic revenue structure, for companies that are (partly) owned by the government, and companies active in the utility and transportation sector. Interestingly, the impact of sovereign risk on corporate risk during the acute European sovereign debt crisis period decreases if ratings are examined, but increases if z-spreads are utilized. Rating agencies seem to take a more differentiated view on individual company risk during the sovereign debt crisis, while institutional investors might want to reduce their exposure to a country in financial distress as a whole, regardless of whether sovereign or corporate bonds are held.     

Bond durations: Corporates vs. Treasuries

We compare the durations (the percentage price sensitivity with respect to the default-free short rate) of corporate and Treasury bonds in the reduced-form, intensity-based credit risk modeling framework. In a frequently used intensity-based model for corporate bond valuation we provide an example showing that, given the parameter estimates found in empirical studies, the duration of a corporate coupon bond may very well be larger than the duration of a similar Treasury bond. This finding contrasts with conclusions of previous studies. In a general, intensity-based recovery of market value framework we provide a simple sufficient condition for when the duration of a corporate bond will be smaller than that of a similar Treasury bond. We also provide an upper bound on the duration of the corporate coupon bond.     

Common risk factors in the cross-section of corporate bond returns

We investigate the cross-sectional determinants of corporate bond returns and find that downside risk is the strongest predictor of future bond returns. We also introduce common risk factors based on the prevalent risk characteristics of corporate bonds—downside risk, credit risk, and liquidity risk—and find that these novel bond factors have economically and statistically significant risk premiums that cannot be explained by long-established stock and bond market factors. We show that the newly proposed risk factors outperform all other models considered in the literature in explaining the returns of the industry- and size/maturity-sorted portfolios of corporate bonds.     

我国企业债券违约的特征趋势、融资特点及风险处置机制研究

本文从债券违约的数量规模、行业分布、地域分布、企业属性、债券品种及违约率等方面阐述了我国企业债券违约的特征趋势,分析了我国企业债券违约的主要原因及其所呈现出来的融资特点,探讨了我国企业债券违约后的五种处置方式,认为我国债券违约风险处置机制还不完善,缺少独立法律制度、处置的市场化程度较低、投资者保护机制不健全、对发行人缺乏硬性约束,影响了违约债券的整体兑付水平,投资人利益难以得到有效维护。建议采取多种措施降低债券违约发生率、优化发行人融资结构、建立债券违约的市场化处置机制,以降低债券违约风险,推动债券市场健康发展。     

Determinants of yield spread dynamics: Euro versus US dollar corporate bonds

This paper presents a systematic comparison between the determinants of euro and US dollar yield spread dynamics. The results show that US dollar yield spreads are significantly more affected by changes in the level and the slope of the default-free term structure and the stock market return and volatility. Surprisingly, euro yield spreads are strongly affected by the US (and not the euro) level and slope. This confirms the dominance of US interest rates in the corporate bond markets. Interestingly, I find that liquidity risk is higher for US dollar corporate bonds than euro corporate bonds. For both regions, the effect of changes in the bid-ask spread is mainly significant during periods of high liquidity risk. Finally, the results indicate that the credit cycle as measured by the region-specific default probability significantly increases US yield spreads. This is not the case for euro yield spreads.     

The Risk Microstructure of Corporate Bonds: A Case Study from the German Corporate Bond Market

This article presents joint econometric analysis of interest rate risk, issuer‐specific risk (credit risk) and bond‐specific risk (liquidity risk) in a reduced‐form framework. We estimate issuer‐specific and bond‐specific risk from corporate bond data in the German market. We find that bond‐specific risk plays a crucial role in the pricing of corporate bonds. We observe substantial differences between different bonds with respect to the relative influence of issuer‐specific vs. bond‐specific spread on the level and the volatility of the total spread. Issuer‐specific risk exhibits strong autocorrelation and a strong impact of weekday effects, the level of the risk‐free term structure and the debt to value ratio. Moreover, we can observe some impact of the stock market volatility, the respective stock's return and the distance to default. For the bond‐specific risk we find strong autocorrelation, some impact of the stock market index, the stock market volatility, weekday effects and monthly effects as well as a very weak impact of the risk‐free term structure and the specific stock's return. Altogether, the determinants of the spread components vary strongly between different bonds/issuers.     

Corporate Credit Spreads and the Sovereign Ceiling in Latin America

We exploit a panel of 72 US dollar-denominated bonds issued by Latin American publicly listed firms between 1996 and 2004, a period of regional financial crises, to answer the following three questions: (1) Is sovereign risk a statistically and economically significant determinant of the corporate credit spread, controlling for firm- and bond-specific characteristics? (2) If yes, do market participants apply the sovereign ceiling rule adopted by rating agencies in the pricing of our bond market data? And (3) how do market views compare with the rating agencies ceiling policy for each corporate bond? We find strong evidence of an economically and statistically significant effect of sovereign risk on corporate spreads across different panel econometric specifications and bonds. Moreover, markets do not apply the ceiling rule in 77–90% of the bonds we sample and these findings are consistent with rating agencies’ policies toward the latter for about 50% of the firms. These results are robust to the inclusion of firm- and bond-specific variables derived from the structural approach to credit risk and to the business cycle in each country.     

The Effects of Inverted Yield Curves on Asset Returns

Between 1954 and 1991, U.S. stocks, long-term government bonds, and corporate bonds show negative risk premiums during periods preceded by inverted yield curves. Intermediate-term government bonds do not. Going from safer to riskier asset classes, the negative risk premiums increase in absolute value and statistical significance. The consumption CAPM offers a possible explanation for the negative risk premiums. A negative covariance between the growth rate of consumption and the premium on the risky assets will result in a negative risk premium. Empirical tests of the conditional covariance show that the consumption CAPM does not explain the phenomena.     

公司债市场是新常态下证券市场的风险信号标吗？——基于公司债与股票市场间风险溢出的研究

以发行债券的上市公司为样本,分别编制公司债指数与股票指数,据此运用Copula-CoVaR模型测度公司债与股票市场间风险溢出的方向与强度。结果发现：股票市场的风险大于公司债市场;公司债与股票市场间存在双向不对称的正向风险溢出,公司债市场对股票市场的风险溢出强度显著强于股票市场对公司债市场的风险溢出强度。经济新常态下,公司债市场成为证券市场的风险指示标,具有较强的风险信号作用。     

Explaining the Rate Spread on Corporate Bonds

The purpose of this article is to explain the spread between rates on corporate and government bonds. We show that expected default accounts for a surprisingly small fraction of the premium in corporate rates over treasuries. While state taxes explain a substantial portion of the difference, the remaining portion of the spread is closely related to the factors that we commonly accept as explaining risk premiums for common stocks. Both our time series and cross-sectional tests support the existence of a risk premium on corporate bonds.     

Binary interest rate sensitivities of emerging market corporate bonds

We develop a framework to assess interest rate sensitivities of emerging market corporate debt. Our analysis, based on yield indexes, is applied to investment grade and high yield portfolios. We reach beyond correlation-based analyses of interest rate sensitivity and keep our scope centered at capital gains of emerging market corporates and U.S. government bonds portfolios. Our empirical analysis spans over the period 2002–2015. We address interest rate sensitivity of assets during the ignition, apogee, and the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Based on historical data series, we evidence that the emerging market corporate bonds exhibit two different regimes of sensitivity to interest rate changes. We observe switching from a positive sensitivity under the normal market conditions to a negative one during distressed phases of business cycles and provide economical explanations of such phenomena. We show that emerging market corporate bonds, which on average could appear rather insensitive to the interest rate risk, in fact, present binary interest rate sensitivities. This research sheds light on how financial institutions may approach interest rate risk management including the downside risk hedge. Our findings allow banks and financial institutions to optimize economic capital under Basel III regulatory capital rules.     

What determines the Japanese corporate credit spread? A new evidence

This paper investigates the determinants of the corporate credit spreads changes in the Japanese bond markets. We show that the business cycle risk and market skewness risk affect changes in the credit spread in Japan even after controlling for the frequently used variables. We also find that the magnitude of market skewness risk is relatively higher for low-rated bonds. Our results are robust to changes in credit ratings, different maturity groups and time periods around the recent global financial crisis.     

Reduced-form Models with Regime Switching: An Empirical Analysis for Corporate Bonds

Empirical evidence shows that there is a close link between regime shifts and business cycle fluctuations. A standard term structure of interest rates, such as the Cox et al. (1985 Econometrica, 53, 385–407; CIR) model, is sharply rejected in the Treasury bond data. Only Markov regime-switching models on the entire yield curve of the Treasury bond data can account for the observed behavior of the yield curve. In this paper, we examine the impact of regime shifts on AAA-rated and BBB-rated corporate bonds through the use of a reduced-form model. The model is estimated by the Efficient Method of Moments (EMM). Our empirical results suggest that regime-switching risk has significant implications for corporate bond prices and hence has a material impact on the entire corporate bond yield curve, providing evidence for the approach of rating through the cycle employed by rating agencies.     

宏观经济不确定性对中国企业债券信用风险的影响——基于2007-2009年月度面板数据

2007年美国次贷危机引发的金融危机给全球经济造成很大的影响,也为本文提供了很好的研究契机,因此,本文利用2007-2009年89家企业债券的月度面板数据,分析宏观经济不确定性对企业债券信用风险的影响程度。我们发现,金融危机爆发后企业债券的信用风险会显著变大。同时,利用该回归结果对2009年12月的截面数据进行估计,进一步验证了本文的结论。     

ILLIQUIDITY RISK,PROJECT CHARACTERISTICS,AND THE OPTIMAL MATURITY OF CORPORATE DEBT

I derive the optimal maturity period for corporate debt used to finance a specific project, when costly financial distress is triggered by the inability to meet coupon obligations. My model predicts a negative relation between bond risk and maturity, and it explains why high-grade bonds show greater maturity dispersion than low-grade bonds, as observed in U.S. corporate bond markets. The major determinant of bond maturity is project duration for low-risk bonds and project risk for high-risk bonds. Other determinants of bond maturity are debt burden, reorganization costs, corporate tax rate, interest rate, and project growth rate.     

Liquidity risk and expected corporate bond returns

This paper studies the pricing of liquidity risk in the cross section of corporate bonds for the period from January 1994 to March 2009. The average return on bonds with high sensitivities to aggregate liquidity exceeds that for bonds with low sensitivities by about 4% annually. The positive relation between expected corporate bond returns and liquidity beta is robust to the effects of default and term betas, liquidity level, and other bond characteristics, as well as to different model specifications, test methodologies, and a variety of liquidity measures. The results suggest that liquidity risk is an important determinant of expected corporate bond returns.     

Risk aversion and the yield of corporate debt

This paper develops a model to estimate the implied default probability of corporate bonds. The model explicitly considers the risk averse behavior of investors to provide a more precise framework for estimating the implied default probability. A Kalman filter method is used to estimate time-varying risk premium associated with the investor's risk aversion. The results of nonlinear regressions indicate that previous risk-neutrality models consistently overestimate the implied default rates of corporate bonds. The results also suggest that investors may have been adequately compensated for investment in risky bonds.     

Illiquidity or credit deterioration: A study of liquidity in the US corporate bond market during financial crises

We investigate whether liquidity is an important price factor in the US corporate bond market. In particular, we focus on whether liquidity effects are more pronounced in periods of financial crises, especially for bonds with high credit risk, using a unique data set covering more than 20,000 bonds, between October 2004 and December 2008. We employ a wide range of liquidity measures and find that liquidity effects account for approximately 14% of the explained market-wide corporate yield spread changes. We conclude that the economic impact of the liquidity measures is significantly larger in periods of crisis, and for speculative grade bonds.     

极端风险事件下股票市场与公司债券市场的尾部风险溢出研究——基于MVMQ-CAViaR模型

构建MVMQ-CAViaR模型,结合金融市场内部极端风险事件和外部极端风险事件,考量股票市场与公司债券市场的尾部风险溢出问题。结果表明,在金融市场内部极端风险事件下,股灾期间仅存在股票市场对公司债券市场单向的尾部风险溢出。公司债券违约潮期间,股票市场与公司债券市场之间存在双向不对称的尾部风险溢出,且公司债券市场对股票市...