In this paper, we analyze the effect of the conversion price of CoCo bonds on equity holders' incentives. First, we use an option-pricing context to show that CoCo bonds can magnify equity holders' incentives to increase the riskiness of assets and decrease incentives to raise new equity in a...

We argue that contingent convertible capital (CoCo-Bonds) might have perverse risk-taking incentives for banks (asset substitution problem) and discourage them from investing in positive NPV projects and issuing new equity in times of crisis (debt overhang problem). Whenever the conversion price...

We propose a new approach to estimate the equity premium using CDS spreads and structural models of default. Our estimates yield equity premia of 6.50% for the U.S., 5.44% for Europe and 6.21% for Asia based on 5-year CDS spreads from 2003-2007. Due to some conservative assumptions these...

More than 80% of US syndicated loans contain at least one fee type and contracts typically specify a menu of spread and different types of fees. We test the predictions of existing theories about the main purposes of fees and provide supporting evidence that: (1) fees are used to Price options...

Poor loan quality is often attributed to loan officers exercising poor judgment. A potential solution is to base loans on hard information alone. However, we find other consequences of bypassing discretion stemming from loan officer incentives and limits of hard information verifiability. Using...

Practitioners frequently price credit instruments using real world quantities (PD, EL) and adding a risk premium. This paper analyzes these credit risk premia implied by structural models of default. We first analyze a Merton framework and find that i) credit risk premia constitute a significant...