Most extant structural credit risk models underestimate credit spreads while matching default rates, recoveries, leverage, and equity risk premia - a shortcoming known as the credit spread puzzle. We calibrate and estimate a model able to explain medium to long-term credit spreads by...

This study analyses how liquidity risk affects bonds' yield spreads after controlling for credit risk, bond-specific characteristics and macroeconomic variables. Using two liquidity estimates, LOT liquidity and the bid-ask spread, we find that, in particular, the LOT liquidity measure has...

The part of credit spread that is not explained by corporate credit risk forecasts future economic activity. I show that the link with aggregate business risk and bond liquidity risk explains this fi nding. Once I project spreads on these two risk factors, which are readily measurable with the...

This paper studies the behavior of corporate bond spreads during different market regimes between 2004 and 2016. Applying a Markov-switching vector autoregressive (MS-VAR) model, we document that the dynamic impact of spread determinants varies substantially with market conditions. In periods of...

Structural credit risk models have faced difficulties in matching observed market credit spreads while simultaneously matching default rates, recoveries, leverage and risk premia - a shortcoming that has become known as the credit spread puzzle. We ask whether stochastic asset volatility, as an...

A new concept of credit spread for defaultable bond pricing is introduced in this paper. When combined with the corresponding survival-based pricing model, it allows fixed income portfolio consists of bonds and credit default swaps to be managed consistently in terms of default and credit spread...

I document a positive relationship between partisan conflict and corporate credit spreads. A onestandard deviation increase in partisan conflict is associated with a 2.61 basis point increase inthe next one-month corporate credit spreads after controlling for bond issue information,...

The paper examines the credit spread between government and corporate bonds at different maturities. Theoretical models assume that credit risk premiums for high quality firms monotonously increase with maturity. We find evidence suggesting that bonds issued at maturities attracting the highest...

We document several facts about corporate debt maturity: (1) debt maturity is pro-cyclical; (2) higher-beta firms tend to have longer debt maturity; (3) shorter maturity amplifies the sensitivity of credit spreads to aggregate shocks. We build a dynamic capital structure model that explains...

We propose a tractable model of a firm's dynamic debt and equity issuance policies in the presence of asymmetric information. Because "investment-grade" firms can access debt markets, managers who observe a bad private signal can both conceal this information and shield shareholders from...