What are the cross-sectional and time-series characteristics of corporate bond returns? Do corporate bond risk premia vary over time and are these time-variations predictable? And if yes, is it a sign of market inefficiency? Recent empirical studies show a strong mean reversion at the monthly...

Various economic theories are available to explain the existence of credit and default cycles. There remains empirical ambiguity, however, as to whether or these cycles coincide. Recent papers_new suggest by their empirical research set-up that they do, or at least that defaults and credit...

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...