We provide a comprehensive study on the cross-sectional predictability of corporate bond returns using big data and machine learning. We examine whether a large set of equity and bond characteristics drive the expected returns on corporate bonds. Using either set of characteristics, we find that...

Recent years have seen growing cases of data-driven tech mergers such as Google/Fitbit, inwhich a dominant digital platform acquires a relatively small rm possessing a large volumeof consumer data. The digital platform can consolidate the consumer data with its existingdata set from other...