A Note on Contingent Claims Pricing with Non-Traded Assets

One of the main objections to applying contingent claims analysis outside the area of derivatives pricing, such as to the pricing of corporate (or sovereign) debt, has been that it is not possible to trade in the relevant state variable, e.g. the assets of a firm. Consequently, replicating portfolios can not be formed and preference free pricing does not result. The aim of this paper is to show that assuming traded assets, as is routinely done, is inconsistent with the presence of stocks and bonds. It is also unnecessary. We argue that a superior alternative to obtain a complete markets setting, is to assume that at least one of the firm's securities, e.g. equity, is traded.corporate bonds; real options; contingent claims; traded assets; underlying assets.

Stock Options as Barrier Contingent Claims

This paper contributes in two ways. First it extends the Geske (1979) compound option pricing model to the case where the underlying call is a down-and-out claim. Second it provides an internally consistent frame-work for valuing options on general corporate securities. Numerical results suggest that the detailed characteristics of the underlying capital structure (such as coupons, principal and maturities) may substantially influence the pricing of options.Compound barrier contingent claims; option pricing

The Valuation of Corporate Liabilities: Theory and Tests

We develop a structural bond pricing approach and implement it on a large panel of US industrial bonds using an efficient maximum likelihood methodology. We evaluate the model's ability to predict yield spread levels and changes out-of-sample. Errors are smaller and distinctly less variable than those found in previous implementations of structural as well as reduced form models. Furthermore, our analysis provide evidence that bond yield spreads incorporate a substantial liquidity component on top of the default spread structural models are designed to capture.corporate bonds; credit risk; yield spreads; default; structural bond pricing models

Liquidity and Credit Risk

We develop a simple binomial model of liquidity and credit risk in which a bondholder has the option to time the sale of his security, given a distribution of potential buyers, bids and liquidity shocks. We examine first the case without default and find that our model predicts decreasing term structures of liquidity premia, consistent with empirical evidence. In the default risky case, we find that liquidity spreads are positively related to credit risk. Using a sample of US corporate bonds, we find support for the time to maturity effect and the positive correlation between credit and liquidity spreads.

The Determinants of Credit Default Swap Premia

Using a new dataset of bid and offer quotes for credit default swaps, we investigate the relationship between theoretical determinants of default risk and actual market premia using linear regression. These theoretical determinants are firm leverage, volatility and the riskless interest rate. We find that estimated coefficients for these variables are consistent with theory and that the estimates are highly significant both statistically and economically. The explanatory power of the theoretical variables for levels of default swap premia is approximately 60%. The explanatory power for the differences in the premia is approximately 23%. Volatility and leverage by themselves also have substantial explanatory power for credit default swap premia. A principal component analysis of the residuals and the premia shows that there is only weak evidence for a residual common factor and also suggests that the theoretical variables explain a significant amount of the variation in the data. We therefore conclude that leverage, volatility and the riskfree rate are important determinants of credit default swap premia, as predicted by theory.Credit default swap; Credit risk; Structural model; Leverage; Volatility

The Determinants of Credit Default Swap Premia

Using a new dataset of bid and offer quotes for credit default swaps, we investigate the relationship between theoretical determinants of default risk and actual market premia using linear regression. These theoretical determinants are firm leverage, volatility and the riskless interest rate. We find that estimated coefficients for these variables are consistent with theory and that the estimates are highly significant both statistically and economically. The explanatory power of the theoretical variables for levels of default swap premia is approximately 60%. The explanatory power for the differences in the premia is approximately 23%. Volatility and leverage by themselves also have substantial explanatory power for credit default swap premia. A principal component analysis of the residuals and the premia shows that there is only weak evidence for a residual common factor and also suggests that the theoretical variables explain a significant amount of the variation in the data. We therefore conclude that leverage, volatility and the riskfree rate are important determinants of credit default swap premia, as predicted by theory. En utilisant une nouvelle base de données de credit default swaps, nous étudions les relations entre les déterminants théoriques du risque de défaut et la prime actuelle du marché en utilisant la régression linéaire. Ces déterminants théoriques sont le niveau d’endettement de la firme, la volatilité et le taux d’intérêt sans risque. Nous trouvons que les coefficients estimés pour ces variables sont en accord avec la théorie et que les estimations sont fortement significatives aussi bien statistiquement qu’économiquement. Le pouvoir explicatif de ces variables théoriques sur le niveau de la prime du default swap est d’environ 60 %. Le pouvoir explicatif sur les différences de prime est de 23 %.La volatilité et le niveau d’endettement en eux-mêmes ont aussi un pouvoir explicatif substantiel pour la prime du credit default swap. Une analyse en composantes principales des résidus et de la prime montre qu’il n’y a pratiquement aucune trace d’un facteur commun résiduel et suggère également que les variables théoriques expliquent une part significative de la variance des données. Nous concluons donc que le niveau d’endettement, la volatilité et le taux sans risque sont d’importants déterminants de la prime des credit default swap, comme prédit par la théorie.credit default swap; credit risk; structural model; leverage; volatility, credit default swap, risque de crédit, modèle structurel niveau d’endettement, volatilité

Liquidity and credit risk

We develop a simple binomial model of liquidity and credit risk in which a bondholder has the option to time the sale of his security, given a distribution of potential buyers, bids and liquidity shocks. We examine as a benchmark the case without default and find that our model predicts a decreasing term structure of liquidity premia, in accordance with the empirical findings of AMIHUD and MENDELSON (1990). Then, we study the default risky case and show that credit risk influences liquidity spreads in a non-trivial way. We find that liquidity spreads are an increasing function of the volatility of the firm's assets and leverage - the key determinants of credit risk. Furthermore we show that bondholders are more likely to sell their holdings voluntarily when bond maturity is distant and when default becomes more probable. Finally, in a sample of US corporate bonds, we find support for the time to maturity effect and the positive correlation between credit and liquidity risks