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Debt correlations in the wake of the financial crisis: What are appropriate default correlations for structured products?

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  • Nickerson, Jordan
  • Griffin, John M.

Abstract

This paper proposes several frameworks to estimate the appropriate default correlations for structured products, each of which jointly considers the role of co-movements in modeled risk characteristics and unmodeled systematic risk, or ‘frailty.’ We contrast our estimates with credit rating agencies’ default correlation assumptions, which were only 0.01 for Collateralized Loan Obligations (CLOs) pre-crisis and have increased to 0.03 post-crisis. In contrast, the joint consideration of observable risk factors and frailty leads to substantially higher estimates of 0.12. We show that this translates into CLOs with credit risk understated by 26%, suggesting caution for the post-crisis structured finance market.

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  • Nickerson, Jordan & Griffin, John M., 2017. "Debt correlations in the wake of the financial crisis: What are appropriate default correlations for structured products?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(3), pages 454-474.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfinec:v:125:y:2017:i:3:p:454-474
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2017.06.011
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    Cited by:

    1. Javadi, Siamak & Mollagholamali, Mohsen, 2018. "Debt market illiquidity and correlated default risk," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 266-273.
    2. Larry Cordell & Michael R. Roberts & Michael Schwert, 2023. "CLO Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 78(3), pages 1235-1278, June.
    3. John M Griffin & Jordan Nickerson, 2023. "Are CLO Collateral and Tranche Ratings Disconnected?," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 36(6), pages 2319-2360.
    4. Yfanti, Stavroula & Karanasos, Menelaos & Zopounidis, Constantin & Christopoulos, Apostolos, 2023. "Corporate credit risk counter-cyclical interdependence: A systematic analysis of cross-border and cross-sector correlation dynamics," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 304(2), pages 813-831.
    5. John Martin & Akin Sayrak, 2022. "Collateralized Loan Obligations: A Primer," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 34(3), pages 35-50, September.
    6. Jan Libich & Liam Lenten, 2022. "Hero or villain? The financial system in the 21st century," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(1), pages 3-40, February.
    7. Dan Luo & Dragon Yongjun Tang & Sarah Qian Wang, 2018. "Model specification and collateralized debt obligation (mis)pricing," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(11), pages 1284-1312, November.
    8. Linda Mhalla & Julien Hambuckers & Marie Lambert, 2022. "Extremal connectedness of hedge funds," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 37(5), pages 988-1009, August.
    9. Mark Clintworth & Dimitrios Lyridis & Evangelos Boulougouris, 2023. "Financial risk assessment in shipping: a holistic machine learning based methodology," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 25(1), pages 90-121, March.
    10. Elkamhi, Redouane & Nozawa, Yoshio, 2022. "Fire-sale risk in the leveraged loan market," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(3), pages 1120-1147.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Credit ratings; Financial crises; Structured finance; Default correlations;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G24 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Investment Banking; Venture Capital; Brokerage
    • G28 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill

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