IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/finmgt/v55y2026i1p49-65.html

Call Me Maybe: Corporate Bond Prices Upon Missed Call Opportunities

Author

Listed:
  • Alexey Ivashchenko
  • Michael Rockinger

Abstract

In a sample of discretely callable corporate bonds, we find excess returns of approximately 40 bps realized on the release of the issuer's decision to call or not to call. The bonds that could have been profitably called (in‐the‐money bonds) but are not called contribute the most to the bond price jump. We attribute the jump to the revaluation of an embedded bond call option due to a missed exercise opportunity, consistent with delayed in‐the‐money calls being suboptimal no‐exercise decisions.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexey Ivashchenko & Michael Rockinger, 2026. "Call Me Maybe: Corporate Bond Prices Upon Missed Call Opportunities," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 55(1), pages 49-65, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:finmgt:v:55:y:2026:i:1:p:49-65
    DOI: 10.1111/fima.12503
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/fima.12503
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/fima.12503?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chen, Zhaohui & Mao, Connie X. & Wang, Yong, 2010. "Why firms issue callable bonds: Hedging investment uncertainty," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 588-607, September.
    2. King, Tao-Hsien Dolly, 2002. "An Empirical Examination of Call Option Values Implicit in U.S. Corporate Bonds," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 37(4), pages 693-721, December.
    3. Cornaggia, Kimberly & Hund, John & Nguyen, Giang, 2022. "Investor attention and municipal bond returns," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    4. King, Tao-Hsien Dolly & Mauer, David C, 2000. "Corporate Call Policy for Nonconvertible Bonds," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 73(3), pages 403-444, July.
    5. Pool, Veronika Krepely & Stoll, Hans R. & Whaley, Robert E., 2008. "Failure to exercise call options: An anomaly and a trading game," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 1-35, February.
    6. David C. Mauer, 1993. "Optimal Bond Call Policies Under Transactions Costs," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 16(1), pages 23-37, March.
    7. Flor, Christian Riis & Petersen, Kirstine Boye & Schandlbauer, Alexander, 2023. "Callable or convertible debt? The role of debt overhang and covenants," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    8. Leland E. Crabbe & Jean Hewlege, 1994. "Alternative Tests of Agency Theories of Callable Corporate Bonds," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 23(4), Winter.
    9. Hai Lin & Kasing Man & Junbo Wang & Chunchi Wu, 2020. "Price discovery and persistent arbitrage violations in credit markets," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 49(1), pages 207-233, March.
    10. Huaizhi Chen & Lauren Cohen & Weiling Liu, 2025. "Calling All Issuers: The Market for Debt Monitoring," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 71(8), pages 6367-6391, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kim, Dong H. & Stock, Duane, 2014. "The effect of interest rate volatility and equity volatility on corporate bond yield spreads: A comparison of noncallables and callables," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 20-35.
    2. Samih Azar, 2015. "Why Callable Bonds Are not Called When the Market Price Reaches the Call Price: A Duration Argument," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 11(1), pages 1-90, December.
    3. Brown, Scott & Powers, Eric, 2020. "The life cycle of make-whole call provisions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    4. Liu, Liang-Chih & Dai, Tian-Shyr & Wang, Chuan-Ju, 2016. "Evaluating corporate bonds and analyzing claim holders’ decisions with complex debt structure," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 151-174.
    5. Alderson, Michael J. & Lin, Fang & Stock, Duane R., 2017. "Does the choice between fixed price and make whole call provisions reflect differential agency costs?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 442-460.
    6. Huaizhi Chen & Lauren Cohen & Weiling Liu, 2025. "Calling All Issuers: The Market for Debt Monitoring," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 71(8), pages 6367-6391, August.
    7. King, Tao-Hsien Dolly, 2007. "Are embedded calls valuable? Evidence from agency bonds," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 57-79, January.
    8. Eric Powers & Sergey Tsyplakov, 2008. "What Is the Cost of Financial Flexibility? Theory and Evidence for Make‐Whole Call Provisions," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 37(3), pages 485-512, September.
    9. Chen, Zhaohui & Mao, Connie X. & Wang, Yong, 2010. "Why firms issue callable bonds: Hedging investment uncertainty," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 588-607, September.
    10. King, Tao-Hsien Dolly & Mauer, David C., 2014. "Determinants of corporate call policy for convertible bonds," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 112-134.
    11. Sarkar, Sudipto, 2003. "Early and late calls of convertible bonds: Theory and evidence," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(7), pages 1349-1374, July.
    12. Pascal François & Sophie Pardo, 2015. "Prepayment risk on callable bonds: theory and test," Decisions in Economics and Finance, Springer;Associazione per la Matematica, vol. 38(2), pages 147-176, October.
    13. Kim, Jong-Min & Kim, Dong H. & Jung, Hojin, 2021. "Estimating yield spreads volatility using GARCH-type models," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    14. Liang‐Chih Liu & Tian‐Shyr Dai & Lei Zhou & Hao‐Han Chang, 2022. "Analyzing interactive call, default, and conversion policies for corporate bonds," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(8), pages 1597-1638, August.
    15. Oosterlinck, Kim & Ureche-Rangau, Loredana & Vaslin, Jacques-Marie, 2019. "Aristocratic Privilege. Exploiting “Good†Institutions," CEPR Discussion Papers 14071, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    16. Weihan Li & Jin E. Zhang & Xinfeng Ruan & Pakorn Aschakulporn, 2024. "An empirical study on the early exercise premium of American options: Evidence from OEX and XEO options," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(7), pages 1117-1153, July.
    17. Y. D'Halluin & P. A. Forsyth & K. R. Vetzal & G. Labahn, 2001. "A numerical PDE approach for pricing callable bonds," Applied Mathematical Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(1), pages 49-77.
    18. Chen, Jianqiang & Hsieh, Pei-Fang & Hsu, Po-Hsuan & Levine, Ross, 2025. "Environmental liabilities, borrowing costs, and pollution prevention activities: The nationwide impact of the Apex Oil ruling," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    19. Spiros H. Martzoukos & Theodore M. Barnhill Jr., 1998. "The Survival Zone For A Bond With Both Call And Put Options Embedded," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 21(4), pages 419-430, December.
    20. Choi, Seungmook & Jameson, Mel & Jung, Mookwon, 2013. "The issuance of callable bonds under information asymmetry," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 1-14.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:finmgt:v:55:y:2026:i:1:p:49-65. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fmaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.