This paper investigates the roles of illiquidity and credit risk in determining the relations between price volatility of a bond and its trading frequency and trade size based on a large transaction dataset from October 2004 to June 2012. We find a positive relation between volatility and...

Using implied-CDS risk premium measures, we find that these variables have higher explanatory power for cross-sectional bond returns than the traditional default spread and ratings. The positive effect of the credit risk premium (CRP) factor on expected returns is pervasive, stronger for...

The root cause of systemic risk is an issue of on-going debate. We document evidence that common shocks of macroeconomic fundamentals are key driver of US state systemic credit risk. A structure model is developed to show importance of economic fundamentals. We find that macroeconomic variables...