Corporate bond yields and returns: a survey

Corporate bonds offer higher yields than government bonds with similar maturity. This higher reward comes at the cost of higher risk. The question then arises of how this risk is priced into corporate bonds. This literature review provides a classification and summary of papers studying corporate bond prices and the premium they offer to investors over the return on risk-free securities. The review ranges from theoretical models to empirical determinants of corporate bond prices. A specific section is dedicated to the liquidity impact as this component has received special attention.

     

Factors affecting the yields of emerging market issuers: Evidence from the Asia-Pacific region

We investigate the yield spread between the sovereign bonds issued in international markets by major Asia-Pacific issuers (China, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand) and matched with near maturity benchmark U.S. Treasury bonds (2, 5, 10 year maturities) to determine the extent that various factors affect changes in credit spreads. The results suggest that the credit spreads of these sovereign bonds tend to be negatively related to changes in interest rates on U.S. benchmark bonds and positively related to changes in the slope of the yield curve. The asset and exchange rate variables were only significant for spreads on Philippine bonds where it was negatively related to changes in the local stock market index, and positively to changes in the exchange rate. The complex dynamics of these processes highlight concerns for portfolio mangers when constructing portfolios of sovereign Asian bonds by aggregating bonds of different credit ratings.     

A note on cointegration of international stock market indices

Cointegration is frequently used to assess the degree of interdependence of financial markets. We show that if a stock's price follows a stock specific random walk, market indices cannot be cointegrated. Indices are a mere combination of n different random walks which itself is non-stationary by construction. We substantiate the theoretical propositions using a sample of 28 stock indices as well as a simulation study. In the latter we simulate stock prices, construct indices and test whether these indices are cointegrated. We show that while heteroscedasticity misleads cointegration tests, it is not sufficient to explain the high correlation between stock market index returns. A common random walk component and correlated price innovations are necessary to reproduce this feature.     

央票发行对债券收益率影响的实证分析

文章通过对于央票招标日各期限央票、国债、金融债二级市场收益率变动特点的描述性统计,以及央票发行量对债券收益率影响的计量分析,实证考察了央票发行对债券市场收益率的影响效应。结果显示,央票招标日债券市场收益率波动性小于日常水平,且二级市场收益率与央票发行利率差值保持在合理波动范围内,体现了货币政策稳定利率的意图。     

Collateral haircuts and bond yields in the European government bond markets

Analyzing a novel collateral haircut dataset, this paper investigates the relations between the collateral haircuts and the yields of Euro-area central government bonds. The empirical analysis shows that investors demand higher yields for bonds with higher collateral haircuts. The importance of collateral haircuts on bond yields remains robust after controlling for the variations in credit quality, market liquidity and the effects of the European sovereign debt crisis.     

On the consistency of ratings and bond market yields

We study the consistency of the credit-risk orderings implicit in ratings and bond market yields. By analyzing errors in term structure estimates for bonds with particular ratings, we show that for significant periods, a quarter of some categories of high credit quality bonds are rated in a manner that is inconsistent with their pricing. Adjusting for economic determinants of spreads (tax, liquidity and risk premiums) and allowing for the dynamic adjustment of ratings and spreads largely eliminates the inconsistencies, however.     

On the relationship between changes in stock prices and bond yields in the G7 countries: Wavelet analysis

The purpose of this paper is to shed a new perspective on the relationship between changes in stock prices and bond yields in the G7 countries. Theoretical studies argue that this relationship may be negative or positive. To investigate the relationship, we model a newly developed time-series technique: wavelet correlation analysis. The key empirical results show that the correlation between changes in stock prices and bond yields can differ from country to country and can also depend on the time scale. Furthermore, wavelet analysis reveals that changes in stock prices and bond yields do not move together in most G7 countries, except in Japan.     

Low frequency effects of macroeconomic news on government bond yields

Are macroeconomic releases important drivers of Treasury bond yields? We develop a two-step regression strategy that fully exploits the available high-frequency market reaction data to identify the impact of macroeconomic releases and to quantify the effects at lower frequencies. While macroeconomic surprises explain only one tenth of the daily variation in bond yields, their explanatory power improves substantially at lower frequencies, accounting for one third of quarterly variations. The finding is explained by the persistent effects that macroeconomic surprises exert on bond yields, and a less persistent impact of residual factors, which tend to average out when focusing on longer-horizon changes.     

The effect of CEO power on bond ratings and yields

We argue that executives can affect firm outcomes only if they have influence over crucial decisions. This study explores the impact of CEO power or CEO dominance on bond ratings and yield spreads. We find that credit ratings are lower and yield spreads higher for firms whose CEOs have more decision-making power. To further investigate why bondholders are concerned about CEO power, we show that powerful CEOs tend to maintain an opaque information environment. Bondholders demand higher yields because it is difficult for them to monitor managers in firms with powerful CEOs. Taken together, the results suggest that bondholders perceive CEO power as a critical determinant of the cost of bond financing.     

Long-term government bond yields and macroeconomic fundamentals: Evidence for Greece during the crisis-era

This paper studies the influence of macroeconomic fundamentals and the underlying 10 years Greek government bonds. We examine for the period between Q12001 up to end to Q42012, applying four major macroeconomic variables such as Debt to GDP ratio, deficit, inflation and unemployment. We found that, overall, deficit, inflation and unemployment among others, play a more significant role as determinants of the 10-year Greek bond yield, while isolating the period during the crisis macroeconomic factors strengthen their affect to the Greek Debt market.     

Timing the investment grade securities market: Evidence from high quality bond funds

We examine the ability of bond fund managers to shift assets between bonds and cash and across bonds of different maturities in order to capture the changes in their relative returns. As measured by estimated changes in portfolio allocations, we find strong evidence of perverse market timing ability between cash and investment grade securities, and our results indicate additional perverse timing across the bond maturity spectrum. Results are robust to an alternative performance metric. We present evidence that the survival of the majority of these funds despite their negative performance may reflect the value investors place on the portfolio diversification benefits of holding these funds.     

银行间债市收益率上扬的成因及后市展望

自2013年6月以来,利率的上行趋势已从货币市场利率扩散到中长端国债收益率,并蔓延到短端收益率。回归分析结果表明,经济基本面和资金面仅可部分解释国债收益率的上涨。文章进一步分析指出,货币政策维持中性偏紧趋向、金融机构调整资产配置结构削减债券投资额度、银行筹资方式多元化推高资金成本这三大因素,也是引起本轮利率接力上行的显著外力。中长期看,债券市场收益率中枢将随之抬升。在中性偏紧的货币政策基调没有改变前,债券市场将只有阶段性回嗳而无趋势性好转的行情。     

Analyzing interest rate risk: Stochastic volatility in the term structure of government bond yields

We propose a Nelson–Siegel type interest rate term structure model where the underlying yield factors follow autoregressive processes with stochastic volatility. The factor volatilities parsimoniously capture risk inherent to the term structure and are associated with the time-varying uncertainty of the yield curve’s level, slope and curvature. Estimating the model based on US government bond yields applying Markov chain Monte Carlo techniques we find that the factor volatilities follow highly persistent processes. We show that yield factors and factor volatilities are closely related to macroeconomic state variables as well as the conditional variances thereof.     

Garch effects on a test of cointegration

This article discusses the effects of GARCH type error processes on the use of the Engle and Granger cointegration test for two variables. Simulation results indicate that (nearly) integrated GARCH processes, as well as GARCH processes that are not covariance stationary, change the critical values. An application to testing for cointegration between spot and futures prices illustrates the practical relevance of using the appropriate critical values.     

A re-examination of the impact of credit ratings and economic factors on state bond yields

In this article we re-examine the impact of credit ratings and economic factors on state bond yields using a two-step model. In the first step, we adopt an ordered probit technique to obtain consistent estimates of state bond default risk. In the second step, we estimate state bond risk premiums using a regression analysis with a categorized risk variable obtained from the first step. Similar to Terza (1987) and Hsiao (1983), the model involves a categorized ordinal explanatory (rating) variable. However, our two-step model deals with a case where category thresholds are unknown and dependent on economic factors. The model provides consistent estimates for the effects of ratings and economic factors on state bond yields. Contrary to previous findings, we find that state bond yields are mainly affected by fundamental economic variables.     

Asymptotics of bond yields and volatilities for extended CIR models under the real-world measure

ABSTRACT

The Cox–Ingersoll–Ross CIR short rate model is a mean-reverting model of the short rate which, for suitably chosen parameters, permits closed-form valuation formulae of zero-coupon bonds and options on zero-coupon bonds. This article supplies proofs of the formulae for the expected present value of payoffs under the real-world probability measure, known as actuarial valuation. Importantly, we give formulae for asymptotic levels of bond yields and volatilities for extended CIR models when suitable conditions are imposed on the model parameters.     

沪深两市基金指数协整性分析

本文运用协整分析的方法,对沪深两市基金指数的联动关系进行了实证分析,结果表明,沪深两市基金指数的变动存在长期稳定均衡关系。     

Dynamic European stock market convergence: Evidence from rolling cointegration analysis in the first euro-decade

The introduction of the euro epitomizes European economic integration. This paper assesses the dynamic process of convergence among four major European stock markets in the first euro-decade. Using tests that allow for endogenously determined breaks in cointegrating relationships and rolling cointegration analysis, we show that although some convergence has been taking place over time, it is very much an ongoing process. There is also evidence that the German and French markets appear to be the ones with a higher degree of convergence while the dominant position of Germany within the eurozone seems to be (re)affirmed by tests conducted herein.     

A re-examination of Libor rigging: a time-varying cointegration perspective

Using a time-varying cointegration framework, this paper examines the alleged manipulation of the London interbank offered rate (Libor) during the 2007–2009 financial crisis. Bank quotes are found to be poor indicators of their financing costs in the crisis period. The aberration in the estimated values of the cointegrating and error correction parameters governing the long-run equilibrium relationship between bank quotes and the final Libor suggests banks were submitting lower quotes. Further analysis which controls for an individual bank’s credit risk, market wide credit and liquidity risks, and a common market factor, demonstrate possible evidence of Libor rigging during the crisis period.