Are green bonds priced lower than their conventional peers?

The green bond market's rapid growth has alerted issuers and investors to this sustainable area of investment. This study ascertains whether green bonds are priced lower than conventional bonds—whether a negative green bond premium exists in both Chinese and global bond markets—and the driving forces behind any such green bond premium. First, an event study is set up to observe stock market's reaction upon issuance of green bonds to test whether green bonds are embedded with additional value by improving the issuer's equity market performance. Then, using the matching method and a two-layer regression process, the study estimates the green bond premium in the Chinese and global markets, respectively, and analyses factors affecting the green bond premium. The event study reveals that green bond issuance could reduce the issuer's equity return performance. The regression models found no significant negative green bond premium in either Chinese or global markets, indicating that green bonds are not priced significantly lower than conventional bonds. However, global market models show that issuing green bonds in CNY could reduce the green bond premium, unlike in USD or EUR.     

Social Capital and the Municipal Bond Market

We examine the influence of social capital in the municipal bond market. Defined as the norms and networks that encourage cooperation, social capital is a social construct which captures a region’s level of altruism, trustworthiness, and propensity to honor obligations. We expect that municipalities with high social capital are more trustworthy and likely to honor their debt obligations, which will result in lower bond yields. Our findings confirm that the bonds issued by municipalities located in high social capital counties exhibit lower yields compared to the municipalities located in low social capital counties. Our findings are also supported by bond prices in the secondary market, which shows that bonds from the municipalities located in high social capital regions have higher prices. Additional tests reveal that the influence of social capital is stronger for general obligation bonds, suggesting that social capital matters more for bonds where the willingness of municipalities to pay taxes is an important factor. Lastly, we document that the bonds of municipalities in high social capital areas are less likely to have insurance, suggesting that social capital may act as a substitute for bond insurance.     

Does underwriter reputation matter in the municipal bond market?

We examine the role of underwriter reputation in the tax-exempt municipal bond market. Using a large sample of 10,239 tax-exempt municipal bonds, we show that generally, reputation matters. Municipal bond issues lead managed by larger and more prestigious underwriters have significantly lower borrowing costs, lower yields, and lower underwriting gross spreads. Our results are consistent with the view that reputation facilitates underwriter activities that leads to reducing information asymmetries between borrowers and issuers in the municipal bond market. Our results are also consistent with larger and more reputable underwriters providing a certificatory role for issues underwritten by them.     

Does corruption increase emerging market bond spreads?

We study the relationship between corruption and borrowing costs for governments and firms in emerging markets. Combining data on bonds traded in the global market with survey data on corruption compiled by Transparency International, we show that countries that are perceived as more corrupt must pay a higher risk premium when issuing bonds. The global bond market ascribes a significant cost to corruption: an improvement in the corruption score from the level of Lithuania to that of the Czech Republic lowers the bond spread by about one-fifth. This is true even after controlling for macroeconomic effects that are correlated with corruption. We find little evidence that investors became more sensitive to corruption in the wake of the Asian financial crisis.     

中国资本市场融资顺序新证:可转债发行公告效应研究

This paper empirically shows that the announcements of the issue of convertible bonds (CBs) by Chinese firms have significant negative effects on shareholders’ wealth. We find that when the samples are partitioned by equity component negative market responses towards the announcements of issuing equity-like CBs are more than that of debt-like CBs. This finding is different from the “pecking order hypothesis” of Myers and Majluf (1984). By analyzing the firm characteristics of convertible bond issuers, we find that the wealth effects are negatively related to equity component, firm size and issue size of convertible bonds, and are positively related to financial leverage, liquidity structure of equity, book value of non-liquidity equity and market-to-book ratio. The underlying reason of equity finance taking precedence of bond finance in Chinese capital market can be attributed the to special “two-system-ownership structure” and corporate governance of Chinese listed companies. Translated from Guanli Shijie 管理世界 (Management World), 2006, (6): 19–27     

What do bond holdings reveal about international funds' preferences?

International bond funds are important institutional investors in emerging markets and their asset allocation decisions have significant implications for bond market developments and debt management policies in developing countries. This paper studies emerging market bond holdings of international funds and analyzes economic and financial factors affecting their bond preferences. It shows that mutual funds prefer to invest in countries with sound fundamentals and more openness to trade. In addition, they favor bonds with high past returns and yields while averting bonds with high transaction costs and idiosyncratic risks.     

新金融形势下我国企业债券市场发展前瞻与对策

随着利率市场化改革的深化,存贷利差缩小挤压了商业银行的利润空间：保持社会融资规模合理增长的调控目标使得直接融资替代间接融资的“金融脱媒”进程加快：欧美国家量化宽松货币政策使得输入型通胀压力加大。此三方面是当前新金融形势的主要特征,不同程度地均将作用于企业债券市场的发展,而我国企业债券市场发展也已经在主动适应金融环境的变化,交易商协会、发改委、证监会三大审批机构的竞争带来了企业债券品种的创新和对银行贷款替代性的增强,企业债券市场的供给、需求扩张趋势日益明显。为此,本文提出保持债券审批机构竞争性、设立债券专项基金、倡导长期债券投资机制、转变债券融资观念等对策建议,旨在为完善债券市场制度建设、促进企业债券融资提供参考。     

Does governing law affect bond spreads?

Controlling for bond and issuer characteristics, bond spreads are expected to be equal across different legal jurisdictions, and differences are expected to disappear through arbitrage. However, an analysis of 490 U.S. dollar–denominated bonds issued by 53 emerging market sovereigns during 1990–2015 reveals that after the financial crisis of 2008, launch spreads of sovereign bonds issued under U.K. law have been higher than those issued under U.S. law, by 130 basis points for BB+ bonds and 175 basis points for B− bonds. This effect was not significant for investment grade bonds. On average, bonds issued under U.K. law had weaker ratings and shorter tenors post-crisis. The post-crisis impact of governing law on sovereign bond spreads is not explained by collective action clauses, or first-time bond issuances. Instead, the difference seems to be related to the perception that U.S. law offers stronger investor protection, and that the investor base for bonds issued under U.S. law is larger than that for bonds issued under U.K. law. The difference in spreads persists in the secondary market even after 180 days, perhaps because of the lack of liquidity, as investors tend to buy and hold these more attractive bonds on a longer-term basis.     

View from practice: Stock market reaction to sukuk credit rating changes in Malaysia

Documented evidence on conventional bond markets shows negative market reaction to bond credit rating downgrade and no reaction to credit rating upgrade. Despite the fact that sukuk issuances make up more than 58.8% of the value of outstanding bonds in the country and Malaysia issues at least half of the world's sukuk and is widely recognized as a leader in the sukuk space, there is no documented evidence on the stock market reaction to sukuk credit rating changes. This study analyzed the wealth effect of sukuk credit rating changes in Malaysia using 16 sukuk upgrades and 20 sukuk downgrades for the period 2000–2014. The evidence shows negative market reaction to downgrades and positive significant reaction to sukuk rating upgrade. This symmetrical market reaction to sukuk credit rating changes implies the market was indifferent between bonds and sukuk from the credit rating perspective. This finding supports the notion that the credit rating agencies are Shariah‐neutral when rating these capital market instruments.     

应该重视与加快发展我国的企业债券

在现代资本市场中 ,债券是发行量最大、交易最活跃的金融工具之一。企业债券 ,又称公司债券 ,它是企业直接融资的重要形式 ,对融资的企业来说债券融资有其特点与优势 ,我国企业债券市场发展比较缓慢 ,原因主要在于金融制度与政府宏观政策的导向。所以在完善与促进企业债券市场的发展上必须制定出相应的措施与对策 ,以促进我国的企业债券市场健康有序地发展。     

Bank risk-taking and market discipline: Evidence from CoCo bonds in Korea

We investigate whether the risk profile of contingent convertible (CoCo) bonds is well-priced by testing the sensitivity of bond spreads to bank asset volatility. While equity holders (bankers) have an incentive to make riskier investments to trigger the write-off, such risk-taking behavior can be contained if CoCo bond investors punish it by demanding higher returns. We have found that investors in the Korean financial market understand the risk profile of CoCo bonds and require higher returns for the additional bank risk, which suggests the presence of market discipline with regard to CoCo bonds.     

Modeling recovery rates of corporate defaulted bonds in developed and developing countries

This paper examines the determinants of recovery rates of corporate defaulted bonds in the emerging markets. We use data on defaulted bonds from Moody's ultimate recovery database over the period 2005–2015 to experiment the impact of the borrower characteristics added to the macroeconomic and the bond market conditions on recovery rates. We find evidence that bond recovery rates in emerging and developed countries do not depend on the same factors. Our results show that bond recovery rates in developing countries seem to depend much more on specific characteristics of firms. The financial crisis has affected more significantly subordinated bond recovery rates than secured bonds in emerging markets.     

Pricing risky corporate bonds: An empirical study

This paper empirically studies a model for pricing risky corporate bonds proposed by Baaquie—based on the seminal Merton. The proposed model provides an exact solution for the price of a risky corporate bond with a finite maturity and explains the market price of corporate fixed coupon bonds as being the result of the market risk that is carried by the bond. Baaquie's model is empirically tested using 42 fixed coupon bonds issued by 23 US corporations, between 2011 and 2017. It is found that the proposed model estimates most bond prices quite accurately. Market time (similar to the concept of psychological time), which is distinct from calendar time, is quantified in the paper and is an exogenous behavioral parameter that plays a pivotal role in improving the accuracy of the pricing model for long-maturity risky bonds.     

VaR在我国开放式基金绩效评价中的应用研究

通过按照开放式基金的种类,选取一级市场上30只开放式基金为样本,采用基于VaR的RAROC方法,运用统计学软件Eviews中处理厚尾现象著称的GARCH模型进行统计分析,得出的结论是:成长型基金的绩效低于股票基金标准;平衡型基金和收入型基金的RAROC值相对较高,超过了股票基金标准;指数型基金的绩效超过股票标准(市场数据);在债券种类中,债券基金的绩效最高。     

Bond restructuring and moral hazard: are collective action clauses costly?

Recent emerging market crises have prompted debate over the costs and benefits of collective action clauses (CACs) in bond contracts. CACs may facilitate the restructuring of repayment terms in the event of financial distress. Proponents of CACs argue they should lower borrowing costs, while opponents contend that they lead to moral hazard and increased borrowing costs. This paper examines the pricing of bonds with and without CACs using data for both primary and secondary market yields and finds no evidence that the presence of CACs has increased yields for either higher- or lower-rated issuers.     

The Determinants of Bond Market Development: Further Evidence from Emerging and Developed Countries

The objective of this paper is to empirically investigate the structural, financial, developmental, institutional, and macroeconomic determinants of bond market development for a sample of 22 emerging and developing countries over the period 1990–2013. We employ both the Prais-Winston and system GMM procedures to tackle the problems of endogeneity among the explanatory variables and our measure of bond market development, group-wise heteroscedasticity, and contemporaneous cross-sectional and serial correlations in the residuals. Our results suggest that a combination of structural, financial and institutional factors seem to exert a significant effect on bond markets. Indeed, economic size, trade openness, investment profile, GDP per Capita, bureaucratic quality, and size and concentration of banking system are positively related to bond market development, while interest rate volatility and fiscal balance are negatively associated with the development of bond markets. Those results are robust to the inclusion of developed countries' bond markets, international bonds issuers, and to possible structural breaks.     

Does deliverability enhance the value of U.S. Treasury bonds?

This study presents the first examination of the value associated with long‐term U.S. Treasury bonds related to their delivery eligibility in the Treasury bond futures market. The opportunity for study has recently become possible given the reduced maturity of Treasury's noncallable bonds in the market. Consistent with rational behavior, deliverable bonds are found to be more valuable than otherwise comparable, ineligible bonds, and the estimated premia are larger than those previously documented for deliverable bills. However, although detectable and statistically significant, the deliverability component of a cash bond's value is somewhat modest in economic terms; some policy implications of this result are discussed. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 28:264–274, 2008     

可转换债券发行的长期股票市场价格绩效研究

应用长期事件研究法,对2000-2004年间发行可转换债券的上市公司的长期市场绩效表现进行了实证研究。研究结果表明,可转债发行前后,可转债标的公司的长期股票价格绩效在绝大多数区间上显著优于行业、规模与权益市值对面值比率的对照组,也显著优于等权加权和总市值加权的综合市场收益率;选择兼有债权和股票期权双重属性的可转债,在一定程度上可以维持标的公司股票价格长期绩效的优良表现。     

国债金融效应:基准利率视角的分析

本文从我国金融市场的发展现状出发,分析了国债利率成为我国金融市场基准利率的必然性和现实性。市场基准利率及其期限结构是一切金融产品的公正定价的基础,因此,作为基准利率的提供者,发达的国债市场是企业债券市场发展、衍生产品创新的前提条件。同时,金融市场的有效性有赖于金融产品的正确定价,本文以股票市场为例证明国债利率对于金融市场效率的提升具有重要作用。