We develop the regime-switching default risk (RSDR) model as a generalization of Merton's default risk (MDR) model. The RSDR model supports an expanded range of asset probability density functions. First, we show using simulation that the RSDR model incorporates sudden changes in asset values...

Correlated defaults and systemic risk are clearly priced in credit portfolio securities such as CDOs or index CDSs. In this paper we study an extensive CDX data set for evidence whether correlated defaults are also present in the underlying CDS market. We develop a cash flow based top-down...