Corporate bond markets in Asia differ widely in size. Some primary markets have opened up to foreign issuers while others have relied on quasigovernment issuers. Secondary markets often suffer from illiquidity, due in varying degrees to narrow investor bases, inadequate microstructures and a...

Spreads on corporate bonds tend to be many times wider than what would be implied by expected default losses alone. These spreads are the difference between yields on corporate debt subject to default risk and government bonds free of such risk.2 While credit spreads are often generally...

Corporate bond issuers in emerging economies in Asia have often had a choice between an onshore market and an offshore one. Since 1998, however, many of these issuers have increasingly turned to the onshore market. This paper investigates systematically what factors have influenced this choice...