We study the role of diversification in reducing the volatility of corporate bond returns induced by changes in credit spreads. Specifically, we look at how credit risk can be diminished when a portfolio is diversified across countries, industry sectors, maturities, seniority types and credit ratings. The role of national industrial structures on international diversification is also investigated. Our results show that geographical diversification is more effective in reducing portfolio risk than any alternative investment strategy we consider, and that industry effects are not material to this result. Finally, we explore the implications of our findings for credit risk capital regulation in banks.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Cited by: (explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)