This paper develops a framework for analyzing the impact of macroeceomic conditions on credit risk and dynamic capital structure choice. We begin by observing that when cash flows depend on current economic conditions, there will be a benefit for firms to adapt their default and financing...

In this paper we analyse recovery rates on defaulted bonds using the Standard and Poor’s/PMD database for the years 1981-1999. Due to the specific nature of the data (observations lie within 0 and 1), we must rely on nonstandard econometric techniques. The recovery rate density is estimated...

This paper studies times-to-default of individual firms across risk classes. Using Standard & Poor’s ratings database we investigate common drivers of default probabilities and address two shortcomings of many papers in the credit literature. First, we identify relevant determinants of default...

This paper provides a simple model of the rescheduling of debt following a sovereign default as a bond exchange. In case of default, the sovereign offers a new bond with lower coupon and principal.The debtors accept the offer if the value of the new bonds is higher than the proceedings of the...

This paper analyzes the relation between the quality of the legal enforcement of loan contracts and the allocation of credit to households, both theoretically and empirically. We use a model of household credit market with secured debt contracts, where the judicial system affects the cost...

In this paper, we present an integrated framework for the measurement and management of market and credit risk in fixed income portfolios. The framework based on the Mark-to-Future approach promoted by Algorithmics is used to analyze the contribution of market and credit risk to portfolio risk...

This paper investigates instantaneous probabilities of default implied by rating and default events. We propose and apply an alternative measurement approach to standard cohort and homogenous hazard estimators. Our estimator is a smooth nonparametric estimator of intensities, free of bias and...

The financial innovations of the late 1990s have led to the emergence of a significant number of new instruments, in particular in the market for hedging credit risk. This paper, based on an original dataset of transactions and quotes, looks at credit default swaps drawn on sovereign countries....

We investigate the consequences for value-at-risk and expected short-fall purposes of using a GARCH filter on various mis-specified processes. We show that careful investigation of the adequacy of the GARCH filter is necessary since under mis-specifications a GARCH filter appears to do more harm...

We evaluate how deviations from normality may affect the allocation of assets. A Taylor expansion of expected utility allows us to focus on certain moments and to compute numerically the optimal portfolio allocation. A decisive advantage of our approach is that it remains operational even if a...