Are companies with traded credit default swap (CDS) positions on their debt more likely to default? Using a proportional hazard model of bankruptcy and Merton's contingent claims approach, we estimate the probability of default for US nonfinancial firms. Our analysis does not generally find a...

We analyze the Altman model, a Logit model as well as the KMV model in order to evaluate their performance. Therefore, we use a random sample of 132 US firms. We create a yearly and a quarterly sample set to construct a portfolio of defaulting and a counter portfolio of non-defaulting companies....

Large and growing international financial linkages between East and West have altered the nature of the stability risks faced by European banking systems, increasing susceptibility to contagion. This paper aims to identify potential risks of cross-border contagion using a sample of large Western...