Do Corruption Perceptions Impact the Pricing and Access of Euro Area Corporations to Bond Markets?

Public sector corruption affects economic and financial outcomes, such as GDP growth, foreign direct investment, and government funding costs. Less is known about the spillovers from perceptions of public sector corruption on the private sector corporate bond market. In this paper, we assess the role of public sector corruption perception on corporate bond market variables in Europe using data of both country-level corporate bond indexes and firm-level corporate bond market issuances. At the aggregate country level, we find some evidence that country indices of corporate bond yields and coupons are higher in countries with more corruption. While we do not find effects of corruption on coupon rates at the individual firm level, we show that higher government corruption perception increases their yield to maturity and reduces the amounts raised by corporations through their bond issuances