We analyze a comprehensive sample of more than 10,000 U.S. stocks in the OTC market. As little is known about this market, we first characterize OTC firms by trading venue and provide evidence on survival, success, frequency of venue changes, reporting status, and trading activity. A large...

Starting from the structural model developed by Merton (1974) and the derived notion of distance-to-default, we study the determinants of credit default swap (CDS) spreads for a sample of European banks over a period from January 2006 to December 2011. In particular, we test variables that are...

We examine recovery rates of defaulted bonds in the US corporate bond market, based on a complete set of traded prices and volumes. A study of the trading microstructure around various types of default events is provided. We document temporary price pressure with high trading volumes on the...

Campbell, Hilscher, and Szilagyi (2008) show that firms with a high probability of default have abnormally low average future returns. We show that firms with a high potential for default (death) also tend to have a relatively high probability of extremely large (jackpot) payoffs. Consistent...

In this paper, we compare the equity returns of dividend-paying and non-dividend paying firms. We find no unconditional return difference even though non-dividend paying firms have many characteristics that suggest high risk. Equivalently, because non-dividend paying firms have high...

As a follow-up study to the author’s previous paper on “Nonperforming Loans in CESEE – What Do They Comprise?”, the present contribution focuses on the definitions of nonperforming loans (NPLs) in a number of Western European nations – Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy,...

This study builds on two previous studies the author contributed to Focus on European Economic Integration (FEEI), namely “Nonperforming Loans in CESEE – What Do They Comprise?” (Barisitz, 2011) and “Nonperforming Loans in Western Europe – A Selective Comparison of National...

The standard measures of distress risk ignore the fact that firm defaults are correlated and that some defaults are more likely to occur in bad times. We use risk premium computed from corporate credit spreads to measure a firm’s exposure to systematic variation in default risk. Unlike...

While the empirical literature has often documented a “default anomaly”, i.e. a negative relation between default risk and stock returns, standard theory suggests that default risk should be priced in the cross-section. In this paper, we provide an explanation for this apparent puzzle using...

Unlike in structural and reduced-form models, we use equity as a liquid and observable primitive to analytically value corporate bonds and credit default swaps. Restrictive assumptions on the firm’s capital structure are avoided. Default is parsimoniously represented by equity value hitting...