BOND BETA AND DEFAULT RISK

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between bond betas and default risk. Previous studies conclude that there is an apparent lack of a significant and direct relationship and offer various explanations. This paper illustrates that beta is influenced by offsetting or conflicting factors that cause the relationship to be ambiguous. Empirical evidence confirms the explanation.     

A CERTAINTY EQUIVALENT APPROACH TO MUNICIPAL BOND DEFAULT RISK ESTIMATION

This paper extends the risk-neutrality default model of municipal bonds to consider the effect of risk aversion on the estimation of default probability. A model is proposed to separate the default risk assessment from the investor's risk aversion. Empirical results show that the risk-neutrality model consistently overestimates the default probability but that the magnitude of this overestimate is generally small and statistically insignificant.     

DURATION,DEFAULT RISK,AND THE TERM STRUCTURE OF INTEREST RATES

We examine the interactive effect of default and interest rate risk on duration of defaultable bonds. We show that duration for defaultable bonds can be longer or shorter than default‐free bonds depending on the relation between default intensity and interest rates. Empirical evidence indicates that in most cases duration for defaultable bonds is much shorter than for their default‐free counterparts because of the negative relation between default risk and interest rates. Results suggest that the duration measure must be adjusted for the effects of default risk and stochastic interest rates to achieve an effective bond portfolio immunization.