Valuation Of Corporate Bonds Research Articles

The Credit Spread: Risk-Free Rate in the Model

This paper proposes a parsimonious credit spread estimation model for valuation of corporate bonds in data-scarce markets. We emphasize the importance of incorporating the risk-free rate directly into credit spread determination. Our model aligns with established literature and demonstrates the ability to capture the observed influence of risk-free rates on credit spreads across economies. We posit that models omitting the risk-free rate component may underestimate credit spreads, particularly impactful in emerging markets with elevated default probabilities and high risk-free rates. Finally, we discuss practical applications of the model, including exchange rate premium calculations, policy analysis, and negative yield spread analysis.

Duration-Based Valuation of Corporate Bonds

Abstract We decompose corporate bond and equity index returns into duration-matched government bond returns and the excess returns over this duration-matched counterfactual, which we term duration-adjusted returns. Compared with previously used excess return definitions (ie, returns in excess of Treasury bills), our decomposition leads to markedly different return patterns and asset pricing implications. In particular, we find that investment-grade bonds earn a small credit risk premium, comparable in magnitude to the convenience yield, and that duration adjustment resolves the CAPM’s failure to price corporate bonds. These findings highlight the importance of adjusting for nonstationary interest rate environments in asset pricing tests. (JEL G10, G12)

Issuance and Valuation of Corporate Bonds with Quantitative Easing

Issuance and Valuation of Corporate Bonds with Quantitative Easing

Issuance and Valuation of Corporate Bonds with Quantitative Easing

After the announcement of the European Central Bank’s corporate quantitative easing program, non-financial corporations timed the bond market by shifting their issuance toward bonds eligible for the program. However, issuers of eligible bonds did not increase total issuance compared to other issuers; nor did they experience different economic outcomes. Instead, the announcement produced substantial spillover effects on risk premia. Credit risk premia declined, both in the corporate bond market and in the default swap market, whereas the valuation of eligible bonds did not change relative to comparable ineligible bonds. Firms took advantage of reduced risk premia by issuing riskier bond types. Using a novel and comprehensive dataset of corporate bonds in the euro area, we document how firms substituted across bond characteristics, and we find evidence of their intention to time the market. Our model indicates corporate market timing is instrumental in allowing quantitative easing to produce spillover effects. JEL Classification: G32, G12, E52, E58, E44

Duration-Based Valuation of Corporate Bonds

We decompose firm-level corporate bond and equity index returns into (1) duration-matched government bond returns and (2) the excess return over and above this duration-matched counterfactual, what we term duration-adjusted returns. Our decomposition provides markedly different return patterns and asset pricing model implications compared to previously employed excess return definitions (i.e., returns in excess of a short-duration fixed income instrument).

A variation of Merton's corporate bond valuation model for firms with illiquid but observable assets

We introduce a new model for pricing corporate bonds, which is a modification of the classical model of Merton. In this new model, we drop the liquidity assumption of the firm's asset value process, and assume that there is a liquidly tradeable asset in the market whose value is correlated with the firm's asset value, and all portfolios can be constructed using solely this asset and the money market account. We formulate the market price of the corporate bond as the product of the price of an optimal replicating portfolio and , where κ is a non-negative constant. The interpretation is that the representative investor uses the price of the optimal replicating portfolio as a benchmark and requests compensation for the non-hedgeable risk. We show that if the replication error is measured relative to the firm's value, the resulting formula is arbitrage free with mild restrictions on the parameters.

The Analysis of Corporate Bond Valuation under an Infinite Dimensional Compound Poisson Framework

This paper analyzes the firm bond valuation and credit spread with an endogenous model for the pure default and callable default corporate bond. Regarding the stochastic instantaneous forward rates and the firm value as an infinite dimensional Poisson process, we provide some analytical results for the embedded American options and firm bond valuations.

Credit Risk, Valuation and Fundamental Analysis

This study explores how a rm’s credit risk a¤ects accounting based valuation of the rm, of its equity and of its debt. The valuation model integrates fundamental equity and credit analysis and, under appropriate conditions, abides by the value conservation principle even in the presence of credit risk. The term structures of credit spreads on corporate bonds and credit default swaps are linked to equity valuation and to proforma nancial statements. Calibration of the valuation model to equity and credit market prices is feasible. The model explains how credit risk depresses price to earnings and price to book ratios. Key words: accounting based valuation, credit spreads, corporate bond valuation, equity valuation, default probability. JEL classi cation: G12; G13.

Liquidity spreads in the corporate bondmarket: Estimation using a semi-parametric model

This study utilizes the liquidity risk associated with Treasury bonds to directly determine the degree to which liquidity spreads account for corporate bond spreads. This enhances understanding of their relative contributions to the yield spreads of corporate bonds. To capture time variation on instantaneous spreads and volatility and to reduce modeling bias, semi-parametric techniques are applied to estimate the time-varying intensity process. Empirical results indicate that our semi-parametric model is good at capturing the time variation in default and liquidity intensity processes. The credit spreads are due to default risk and reflect the relative liquidity of the corporate bond market, indicating that liquidity risk plays an important role in corporate bond valuation.

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.

Factors Affecting the Valuation of Corporate Bonds

Factors Affecting the Valuation of Corporate Bonds

A model of corporate bond pricing with liquidity and marketability risk

We develop a corporate bond valuation model that takes into account both the risk of early default and the risk generated by lack of liquidity and marketability. Randomly matched investors who have heterogeneous prior beliefs about the value of the firm in bankruptcy bargain for the price of the asset in a secondary market. The liquidity and marketability risk is shown to be a function of the heterogeneity of investors’ valuations, the average belief about the cost of bankruptcy and the bargaining power of bondholders. The model also captures the fact that, soon after the issue, a bond is relatively liquid and later becomes relatively illiquid depending on the underlying asset value.

Factors affecting the valuation of corporate bonds

An important body of literature in Financial Economics accepts bond ratings as a sufficient metric for determining homogeneous groups of bonds for estimating either risk-neutral probabilities or spot rate curves for valuing corporate bonds. In this paper we examine Moody’s and Standard & Poors ratings of corporate bonds and show they are not sufficient metrics for determining spot rate curves and pricing relationships. We investigate several bond characteristics that have been hypothesized as affecting bond prices and show that from among this set of measures default risk, liquidity, tax liability, recovery rate and bond age leads to better estimates of spot curves and for pricing bonds. This has implications for what factors affect corporate bond prices as well as valuing individual bonds.

Corporate Yield Spreads and Bond Liquidity

We examine whether liquidity is priced in corporate yield spreads. Using a battery of liquidity measures covering over 4000 corporate bonds and spanning investment grade and speculative grade categories, we find that more illiquid bonds earn higher yield spreads; and that an improvement of liquidity causes a significant reduction in yield spreads. These results hold after controlling for common bond-specific, firm-specific, and macroeconomic variables, and are robust to issuers' fixed effect and potential endogeneity bias. Our finding mitigates the concern in the default risk literature that neither the level nor the dynamic of yield spreads can be fully explained by default risk determinants, and suggests that liquidity plays an important role in corporate bond valuation.

Corporate Bond Valuation and Hedging with Stochastic Interest Rates and Endogenous Bankruptcy

This paper analyzes corporate bond valuation and optimal call and default rules when interest rates and firm value are stochastic. It then uses the results to explain the dynamics of hedging. Bankruptcy rules are important determinants of corporate bond sensitivity to interest rates and firm value. Although endogenous and exogenous bankruptcy models can be calibrated to produce the same prices, they can have very different hedging implications. We show that empirical results on the relation between corporate spreads and Treasury rates provide evidence on duration, and we find that the endogenous model explains the empirical patterns better than do typical exogenous models.

Factors Affecting the Valuation of Corporate Bonds

The valuation of corporate debt is an important issue in asset pricing. While there has been an enormous amount of theoretical modeling of corporate bond prices, there has been relatively little empirical testing of these models. Recently there has been extensive development of rating based models as a type of reduced form model. These models take as a premise that groups of bonds can be identified which are homogeneous with respect to risk. For each risk group the models require estimates of several characteristics such as the spot yield curve, the default probabilities and the recovery rate. These estimates are then used to compute the theoretical price for each bond in the group. The purpose of this article is to clarify some of the differences among these models, to examine how well they explain prices, and to examine how to group bonds to most effectively estimate prices.

Corporate Bond Valuation and Hedging with Stochastic Interest Rates and Endogenous Bankruptcy

This paper analyzes corporate bond valuation and optimal call and default rules when interest rates and firm value are stochastic. It then uses the results to explain the dynamics of hedging. Bankruptcy rules are important determinants of corporate bond sensitivity to interest rates and firm value. Although endogenous and exogenous bankruptcy models can be calibrated to produce the same prices, they can have very different hedging implications. We show that empirical results on the relation between corporate spreads and Treasury rates provide evidence on duration and find that the endogenous model explains the empirical patterns better than typical exogenous models.

A NOTE ON RISKY BOND VALUATION

This paper develops a corporate bond valuation model that incorporates a default barrier with dynamics depending on stochastic interest rates and variance of the corporate bond function. Since the volatility of the firm value affects the level of leverage over time through the variance of the corporate bond function, more realistic default scenarios can be put into the valuation model. When the firm value touches the barrier, bondholders receive an exogenously specified number of riskless bonds. We derive a closed-form solution of the corporate bond price as a function of firm value and a short-term interest rate, with time-dependent model parameters governing the dynamics of the firm value and interest rate. The numerical results show that the dynamics of the barrier has material impact on the term structures of credit spreads. This model provides new insight for future research on risky corporate bonds analysis and modelling credit risk.

Valuing Risky Fixed Rate Debt: An Extension

This paper develops a corporate bond valuation model that takes into account both early default and interest rate risk. It corrects a defect of recent contributions where pricing equations do not assure that the payment to bondholders upon bankruptcy is no greater than firm value. The bankruptcy-triggering mechanism is directly related to the payoff received by bondholders when early bankruptcy is forced upon the firm. More specifically, the default barrier is defined simply as a fixed quantity discounted at the riskless rate up to the maturity date of the risky corporate bond. As soon as this threshold is crossed, bondholders receive an exogenously specified fraction of the remaining assets. Deviations from the absolute priority rule also are captured. Because it accounts for Gaussian interest rate uncertainty, default risk, and deviations from the absolute priority rule, this model is capable of producing quite diverse shapes for the term structure of yield spreads.

Does Default Risk in Coupons Affect the Valuation of Corporate Bonds?: A Contingent Claims Model

The early work of Black and Scholes, and Merton, made the connection between conventional options and corporate liabilities. The standard textbooks now employ option-pricing arguments in discussing the valuation of stocks, bonds, convertible bonds and warrants; this discussion extends to the various features (such as call and sinking-fund features) that now are appended to these issues. The technique is to recognize that the value of a particular security derives from, or is contingent on, the value of the firm and other economic variables (such as the yield curve for government securities), and then apply the same valuation procedure that one would use to value a call option on some underlying common stock.