No abstract

This article provides a Markov model for the term structure of credit risk spreads. The model is based on Jarrow and Turnbull (1995), with the bankruptcy process following a discrete state space Markov chain in credit ratings. The parameters of this process are easily estimated using observable data. This model is useful for pricing and hedging corporate debt with imbedded options, for pricing and hedging OTC derivatives with counterparty risk, for pricing and hedging (foreign) government bonds subject to default risk (e.g., municipal bonds), for pricing and hedging credit derivatives, and for risk management. This article presents a simple model for valuing risky debt that explicitly incorporates a firm's credit rating as an indicator of the likelihood of default. As such, this article presents an arbitrage-free model for the term structure of credit risk spreads and their evolution through time. This model will prove useful for the pricing and hedging of corporate debt with We would like to thank John Tierney of Lehman Brothers for providing the bond index price data, and Tal Schwartz for computational assistance. We would also like to acknowledge helpful comments received from an anonymous referee.

Abstract:We study the implications of imperfect information for term structures of credit spreads on corporate bonds. We suppose that bond investors cannot observe the issuer's assets directly, and receive instead only periodic and imperfect accounting reports. For a setting in which the assets of the firm are a geometric Brownian motion until informed equityholders optimally liquidate, we derive the conditional distribution of the assets, given accounting data and survivorship. Contrary to the perfect-information case, there exists a default-arrival intensity process. That intensity is calculated in terms of the conditional distribution of assets. Credit yield spreads are characterized in terms of accounting information. Generalizations are provided. 1 We are exceptionally grateful to Michael Harrison for his significant contributions to this paper, which are noted within. We are also grateful for insightful research assistance from Nicolae Gârleanu, Mark Garmaise, and Jun Liu; for very helpful discussions with Martin Jacobsen, Marliese Uhrig-Homburg, Marc Yor, and Josef Zechner; and for comments from Michael Roberts, Klaus Toft, William Perraudin, Monique Jeanblanc, Jean Jacod, Philip Protter, Alain Sznitmann, Emmanuel Gobet, Anthony Neuberger, Jason Wei, Pierre de la Noue, Olivier Scaillet, numerous seminar participants, as well as Drew Fudenberg and several anonymous referees. Duffie is at GSB Stanford CA 94305-5015 (Phone:

No abstract

a b s t r a c tWe analyze liquidity components of corporate bond spreads during 2005-2009 using a new robust illiquidity measure. The spread contribution from illiquidity increases dramatically with the onset of the subprime crisis. The increase is slow and persistent for investment grade bonds while the effect is stronger but more short-lived for speculative grade bonds. Bonds become less liquid when financial distress hits a lead underwriter and the liquidity of bonds issued by financial firms dries up under crises. During the subprime crisis, flight-to-quality is confined to AAA-rated bonds.