We study climate risk premiums in euro area corporate bond markets. As gauges of climate risk, we distinguish between physical and transition risks using textual analysis. Our findings show that, since the Paris agreement, physical risk is significantly priced in corporate bonds with longer-term...

The green bond market helps to mobilize financial sources toward sustainable investments. Green bonds are similar to conventional bonds but are specifically designed to raise money to finance environmental projects. The feature of green bonds is the existence of greenium, or the lower yield...

We investigate the impact of credit spreads on the stochastic duration and convexity of corporate bonds with respect to the very metrics for equivalent Treasury bonds. We show that the credit spread has two interacting effects on both the duration and the convexity of a corporate coupon bond as...

We document that the first and third cross-sectional moments of corporate bond returns significantly and positively predict future stock market returns both in- and out-of-sample. The predictability emerges from informed bond trading and gradual diffusion of information. Particularly, the...

This paper documents substantial evidence of return predictability and investment gains for individual corporate bonds via machine learning. The forecast-implied long-short and market-timing strategies deliver significant risk-adjusted returns over transaction costs. Random Forest has the best...

We consider a classical discrete term-structure model for the joint modelling of risk-free and defaultable bonds (also known under its historical name, defaultable LIBOR market model). We model the risk-free forward rate Lᵢ and the defaultable forward-rate Lᵈᵢ.In the usual specification...

We analyze the effects of the PEPP (Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme), the temporary quantitative easing implemented by the ECB immediately after the burst of the Covid-19 pandemic. We show that the differences in aim, size and flexibility with respect to the traditional Corporate Sector...

We investigate the effect of Confucian culture on corporate bond pricing. Using the birthplace data of 56,759 Jinshi in the Ming and Qing dynasties to construct a proxy of Confucian culture, we find a significantly negative relation between Confucian culture and bond pricing: the stronger the...

Faulty ratings of mortgage-related collateralized bond obligations played a prominent role in the financial crisis of 2008. Some critics charge that the rating agencies did not merely make honest mistakes, but were hopelessly conflicted by their practice of collecting revenue from the bond...

This paper finds that institutional investors prefer holding bonds issued by firms with good corporate governance. This preference is particularly robust for life insurance companies which are the dominant long-term investors and pension funds that also hold bonds for the long term. Governance...

I perform a comparative analysis of several state-of-the-art machine learning methods for liquidity prediction in the corporate bond market. I first construct a liquidity measure using the first principal component of 11 liquidity measures, then build a comprehensive data library of corporate...

Debt financing gives rise to conflicts of interest between creditors and stockholders that are better controlled with private loans than publicly traded bonds. However, public debt has greater liquidity and diversifiability. We propose an institutional innovation ? a "supertrustee" - that...

Emerging markets (EM) corporate bonds are perceived to offer attractive diversification potential and risk-adjusted returns, but to be illiquid. This study expands the empirical evidence by examining the liquidity of EM debt by solving a triangular structured system. We find EM bond liquidity to...

This paper investigates whether firms strategically deviate positively from their normal environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure levels as a signal to investors to obtain better access to finance. Analysing 3,900 firm-year observations in the US corporate bond market from 2009 to...

This working paper is written by Victor Leung (Hong Kong Monetary Authority), Wilson Wan (Hong Kong Monetary Authority) and Joe Wong (Hong Kong Monetary Authority).This study explores the “dark side” of the current development of corporate green bond markets. We document that greenwashing is...

The paper investigates CDS spreads reaction to the type of issued bonds, green or conventional. We use an event study based on the CDS spreads reaction for the green bond issuance. First, we find that there is a green bond effect. That is, CDS spreads decline when a green bond is issued,...

Does the market value the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance of firms in corporate bond credit spreads? In this study, we construct the firm-level corporate bond credit spread based on the ‘bottom-up’ approach and examine the relationship between corporate ESG...

We examine monthly excess returns for 23 Euro-denominated corporate bond indices and propose a new specification for bond asset pricing models. Specifically, we separate level and slope components of term and default risk factors and examine liquidity risk. Our results suggest that level and...

Using a comprehensive panel data set by ISS, we construct a multi-dimensional governance measure and investigate the effect on corporate bond liquidity. We find that governance has a significant impact on bond liquidity, which works through improved firms’ information disclosure and interest...

Corporate bonds carry a premium of extreme illiquidity (EIL). This premium permeates all rating categories and heightens in times of stress and periods with high uncertainty. EIL has predictive power in the cross-section for future returns up to at least a one-year horizon. Active investors like...

Credit spreads are the yields of risky debt securities minus risk-free rates. The finance literature has long argued which share of them is due to credit risk and which share results from other factors. We suggest a novel set of multiple quasi-natural experiments based on government guarantees...

The majority of bond trading around the world takes place in over-the-counter (OTC) markets where liquidity is provided by a relatively small number of financial institutions (dealers), who use their balance sheets to intermediate trades. This is in stark contrast to stock markets, where trading...

Using a comprehensive corporate governance data set and machine learning techniques, specifically Neural Networks, I validate a significant effect and out of sample predictability of governance for corporate bond yield to maturity, which is the most important discount factor for bond valuations....

We examine the novel phenomenon of sustainability-linked bonds (SLBs). These bonds’ coupon is contingent on the issuer achieving a predetermined sustainability performance target. We estimate the yield differential between SLBs and non-sustainable counter-factuals by matching bonds from the...

Using a sample of Chinese municipal corporate bonds from 2011 to 2019, this paper investigates the effect of city-level air pollution on local government financing costs. We find that cities with severe air pollution tend to have higher municipal corporate bond spreads, indicating that air...

The objective of this study is to establish understanding of the success factors in issuing green bonds including the corresponding benefits and challenges of their issuance in Lithuania. The research methodology is comprised of the three parts: (1) a literature review to examine the success...

I study the causal effect of bond investor demand on the financing and investment decisions of nonfinancial firms using granular data on the bond transactions of U.S. insurance companies. Liquidity inflows from insurance premiums combined with insurers' persistent investment preferences identify...

This report presents a long-term view of the evolution of financing of EU non-financial corporations (NFCs) in recent decades. It finds a decline in NFC leverage since at least 2008, and across countries, size categories and industries. It also documents a growing role of non-bank financial...

This report presents a long-term view of the evolution of financing of EU non-financial corporations (NFCs) in recent decades. It finds a decline in NFC leverage since at least 2008, and across countries, size categories and industries. It also documents a growing role of non-bank financial...

Demand for sustainable fixed-income investment solutions is surging but there is hardly research on the impact of sustainability on the risk characteristics of fixed-income portfolios. This study examines the impact of sustainability on the credit risk exposure of U.S. corporate bond portfolios...

This paper employs data on corporate bond mutual fund flows to investigate bond investments under low interest rates. In response to the Fed’s lower interest rate policy, we find that investment-grade bond funds receive inflows, while high-yield bond funds are not responsive. This result can...

This study explores the “dark side” of the corporate green bond markets. We first document that greenwashing is not uncommon in green bond markets, as some corporates are found to have no reduction in greenhouse gas emission intensities after their initial green bond issuance. Next, we find...