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Quantifying Liquidity and Default Risks of Corporate Bonds over the Business Cycle

Author

Listed:
  • Hui Chen
  • Rui Cui
  • Zhiguo He
  • Konstantin Milbradt

Abstract

We develop a structural credit model to examine how interactions between default and liquidity affect corporate bond pricing. The model features debt rollover and bond-price-dependent holding costs. Over the business cycle and in the cross-section, the model matches average default rates and credit spreads in the data, and captures variations in bid-ask and bond-CDS spreads. A structural decomposition reveals that default-liquidity interactions can account for 10%–24% of the level of credit spreads and 16%–46% of the changes in spreads over the business cycle. Further, liquidity-related corporate bond financing costs amount to 6% of the total issuance amount from 1996 to 2015. Received July 12, 2015; editorial decision April 15, 2017 by Editor Andrew Karolyi. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix, which is available on the Oxford University Press website next to the link to the final published paper online.

Suggested Citation

  • Hui Chen & Rui Cui & Zhiguo He & Konstantin Milbradt, 2018. "Quantifying Liquidity and Default Risks of Corporate Bonds over the Business Cycle," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(3), pages 852-897.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:rfinst:v:31:y:2018:i:3:p:852-897.
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G00 - Financial Economics - - General - - - General
    • G1 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G20 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - General

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