The correlation between interest rates and corporate bond yield spreads is a well-known feature of structural bond pricing models. Duffee (1998) argues that this correlation is weak once the effects of call options are removed from the data; a conclusion that contradicts the negative correlation...

The correlation between interest rates and corporate bond yield spreads is a well-known feature of structural bond pricing models. Duffee (1998) argues that this correlation is weak once the effects of call options are removed from the data; a conclusion that contradicts the negative correlation...

Recent theoretical models including the closed-form valuation model of Longstaff and Schwartz (1995) predict that credit spreads are driven by both an asset and interest rate factor. In empirical studies the credit spread may be expressed as either the difference between, or ratio of, the risky...

Diversification is routinely promoted to improve poor rural peoples' livelihoods. However, policy recommendations for livelihood diversification developed based on evidence from crop-cultivating sedentary rural societies may not work for the mobile pastoral communities, where socio-ecological...