We propose a new score-driven model to capture the time-varying volatility and tail behavior of realized kernels. We assume realized kernels follow an F distribution with two time-varying degrees-of-freedom parameters, accounting for the Vol-of-Vol and the tail shape of the realized kernel...

We present a new model to decompose total daily return volatility into a filtered (high-frequency based) open-to-close volatility and a time-varying scaling factor. We use score-driven dynamics based on fat-tailed distributions to limit the impact of incidental large observations. Applying our...

We model 1981-2002 annual US default frequencies for a panel of firms in different rating and age classes. The data is decomposed into a systematic and firm-specific risk component, where the systematic component reflects the general economic conditions and default climate. We have to cope with...

We study the relation between the credit cycle and macro-economic fundamentals in an intensity-based framework. Using rating transition and default data of U.S. corporates from Standard and Poor’s over the period 1980-2005 we directly estimate the credit cycle from the micro rating data. We...