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This thesis deals with various issues regarding determinants of US corporate credit spreads. These spreads are estimated as the difference between yields to maturity for corporate bonds and default-free instruments (Treasury bonds) of the same maturity. Corporate credit spreads are considered as measures of default risk. However, the premium required by investors for holding risky rather than risk-free bonds will incorporate a compensation not only for the default risk but also for other factors related to corporate bonds such as market liquidity or tax differential between corporate and Treasury bonds. In this study we firstly examine the relationship between bond ratings and credit spreads given that bond rating changes are expected to carry some informational value for debt investors. The findings indicate that bond ratings generally carry some informational value for corporate bond investors. The Granger causal relationship is more evident for negative watch lists and during periods of uncertainty in financial markets. In line with previous studies, our results suggest that changes in credit spreads are significantly related to interest rate levels, systematic risk factors (Fama and French) factors and equity returns.

The covered warrant market in the UK has gained in popularity over time since first launched in 2002. This has opened up an alternative investment choice which offers derivative securities with a life of typically one to two years. It seems to fulfill many of the functions of a traded options market. Since most research has been focused on options trading, the investigation on covered warrants trading is still very limited. This is also largely due to the lack of readily available data for end-traded covered warrants and the existing covered warrants. A unique set of hand-collected data, supplemented by public and private data from main covered warrants issuer and the financial database are employed, making this thesis possible. The sample periods can be divided into two separate sets. The UK covered warrants trading during the period July 2004 - December 2006 are used to examine the impact of warrant introduction and expiration on the price, volume and volatility of the underlying securities. For the introduction analyses, both the announcement and listing of covered warrants have negative impacts on the price of underlying securities for both call and put features, though the impact of the announcement is more pronounced than that of the listing. These affects are temporary and do not persist much beyond the introduction of the warrants. Negative price impacts of the expiration event are also reported for both call and put covered warrants. However, this study finds no significant impacts on the volume of underlying securities trading from the announcement, listing and expiration of call and put covered warrants. Further evidence indicates an increase in volatility of the underlying securities during the announcement and listing of covered warrants. The results hold true for both call and put warrants cases. On the other hand, a decreasing stock volatility is found as a consequence of the expiration of both call and put covered warrants. The second data set involves the call covered warrants traded in the UK market between April 2007 and December 2008; this was analysed for evidence of the best appropriate covered warrants pricing model. This study suggests default risk as a major concern for the warrant price which is called the Vulnerable warrant price. The reasons behind this arise from concern about the issuer’s creditworthiness due to traders’ fraudulent action and the recent subprime problem, the difficulties of dynamic hedging by issuers because of market imperfections, as well as the no guarantees on covered warrant trading provided by the London Stock Exchange. The most salient findings of the study are the following. The Vulnerable warrant price is generally lower than both the Black-Scholes price and warrant market price throughout the warrant’s lifetime. The evidence suggests an overvalued warrant price in the UK market. Moreover, the in-the-money warrants indicate a higher rate of default in comparison to the out-of-the-money warrants. An additional finding shows that the market becomes aware of the default risk only on a short-term basis. The presentation of negative abnormal returns of both market and the Black-Sholes prices support the assumption that default risk is a relevant factor in pricing the UK covered warrants. These findings add to the literature dealing with the effect of derivatives trading on the underlying securities as well as providing more empirical evidence on a particular covered warrant market. This could be of interest not only for practitioners to widen their investment opportunities but also for regulators to have this as a guideline for their future related policies planning.

The crisis of the mortgage market and the mortgage-backed security (MBS) market in 2008 had dramatic negative effects in dragging down all of the economy on a worldwide scale. Many researches have, therefore, attempted to explore the influencing factors on mortgage default risk. This project, in cooperation with the company EnerScore, revolves around discovering a correlation between portfolios of mortgages to underlying energy expenditures. EnerScore€™s core product provides an internal dataset related to home energy efficiency for American homes and gives their corresponding home energy efficiency rating to every home, which is called an €œEnerScore.€� This project involves discovering a correlation between default within portfolios of mortgages based on underlying energy expenditures. The goal is to show that energy efficient homes potentially have lower default risks than standard homes because the homes which lack energy efficiency are associated with higher energy costs. This leaves less money to make the mortgage payment, and thereby increases default risk. The first phase of this project involves finding a foreclosure dataset that will be used to design the quantitative model. Due to limited availability and constraints related to default data, Google search query data is used to develop a broad based and real-time index of mortgage default risk and establish a meaningful scientific correlation. After analyzing several statistical models to explore this correlation, the regression tree model showed that the EnerScore is a strong predictor for mortgage default risk when using city-level mortgage default risk data and EnerScore data.

Thesis advisor: Susanto Basu / The goal of this dissertation is to shed some light on three separate aspects of the financial system that can lead to greater instability in the banking sector and greater macroeconomic volatility. The starting point of the Great Recession was the collapse of the banking sector in late 2007; in the subsequent months, liquidity evaporated in many markets for short term funding. The process of creating liquidity carried out by the banking system involves the transformation of long term illiquid assets into short term liquid liabilities. This engine functions properly as long as cash lenders continue to roll over short term funding to banks; whenever these lenders fear that banks will not be able to pay back these obligations, they immediately stop funding banks' short term liabilities. This makes banks unable to repay maturing short term debt, which leads to large spikes in default risk. This is often referred to as a modern bank run. Virtually all the theories of bank runs suggest that the severity of a run depends on how well lenders can coordinate their beliefs: whenever a lender expects many others to run, he becomes more likely to run as well. In a joint work with Emanuele Brancati, the first chapter of my dissertation, we empirically document the role of coordination in explaining bank runs and default risk. We establish two new results. First, when information is more precise and agents can better coordinate their actions, a change in market expectations has a larger impact on default risk; this implies that more precise information increases the vulnerability or instability of the banking system. This result has a clear policy implication: if policymakers want to stabilize the banking system they should promote opacity instead of transparency, especially during periods of financial turmoil. Second, we show that when a bank is expected to perform poorly, lower dispersion of beliefs actually increases default risk; this result is in contrast with standard theories in finance and can be rationalized by thinking about the impact that more precise information has on the ability of creditors to coordinate on a bank run. Another aspect of the banking system that is creating a lot of instability in Europe is the so called "disastrous banks-sovereign nexus": many banks in troubled countries owned a disproportionately large amount of domestic sovereign bonds; therefore, in case of a default of the sovereign country, the whole domestic banking sector would incur insurmountable losses. This behavior is puzzling because these banks in troubled countries would greatly benefit from having a more diversified asset portfolio, but instead decide to load up with domestic sovereign debt only. In a joint work with Filippo De Marco, the second chapter of my dissertation, we show that banks receive political pressures from their respective governments to load up on domestic sovereigns. First, we show that banks with a larger fraction of politicians as shareholders display greater home bias. More importantly, we exploit the fact that low-performing banks received liquidity injections by their domestic governments to show that, among those banks, only the "political banks" drastically increased their home bias upon receiving government help. Furthermore, it appears that the extent of political pressure on banks is much stronger on those "political banks" belonging to troubled countries. These findings suggest that troubled countries that would need to pay a high premium to issue new debt force their "political banks" to purchase part of the debt issuance. This greater risk-synchronization can create a dangerous loop of higher sovereign default risk leading to insolvency of the domestic banking system, which in turn would require a bail-out from the local government, further exacerbating the sovereign de- fault risk. Finally, the third chapter of my dissertation, a joint work with Susanto Basu, investigates the sources of excess consumption volatility in emerging markets. It is a well documented fact that, in emerging markets, consumption is more volatile than output whereas the opposite is true in developed economies. We propose an explanation for this phenomenon that relies on a specific form of financial markets incompleteness: we assume that households would always want to front-load consumption and they can borrow from abroad up to a fraction of the value of posted collateral. With the value of collateral being procyclical, households are able to increase borrowing during an expansion and ultimately consume more than they produce; this mechanism is then able to generate a ratio of consumption volatility to output volatility grater than one. Most importantly, the model delivers the implication that a better ability to borrow vis-a-vis the same value of collateral generates greater relative consumption volatility. We then bring this model's implication to the data and find empirical support for it. We proxy the ability to borrow with various measures of effectiveness of lending regulation and more standard indicators of financial development. Consistent with the model's implication, more lending friendly regulation leads to greater relative consumption volatility in emerging markets; moreover, this link breaks down among developed countries. In addition, among emerging countries, it appears that deeper domestic capital markets have a destabilizing effect in terms of greater relative consumption volatility while a more developed domestic banking system does not exerts any such detrimental effect. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.

Nas duas últimas décadas, o Brasil vem praticando elevadas taxas de juros nominais em relação à taxa de inflação existente. Isso encarece o crédito, aumenta o endividamento e prejudica o crescimento econômico sustentado. Além disso, fatores como a implementação de políticas econômicas de combate à inflação, a aceleração do processo de abertura e internacionalização econômicas criam um mix variáveis que se relacionam com a taxa de juros e deixam explícita a necessidade de se analisar os principais determinantes da taxa de juros nominal no Brasil e sua relação com a taxa de câmbio, objetos de estudos do presente trabalho. O modelo teórico apresentado, expandido para incluir uma equação de Fisher adequada à economia brasileira e o risco de default, foi estimado seguindo os seguintes passos: 1) testes de raiz unitária de Dickey-Pantula, Dickey-Fuller, raiz unitária sazonal e raiz unitária com quebra estrutural foram realizados de modo a saber o grau de integração de cada variável e, assim, como cada uma deve ser considerada nos modelos; 2) regressões para taxa de juros e taxa de câmbio foram, inicialmente, estimadas pelo método de Mínimos Quadrados Ordinários e, caso tenham sido constatados problemas de heteroscedasticidade e autocorrelação dos resíduos, as regressões foram reestimadas pelo método dos Mínimos Quadrados Ponderados, Mínimos Quadrados Ponderados com modelo não-linear de correção da autocorrelação dos resíduos e/ou Mínimos Quadrados Ponderados com estimativas consistentes da variância de White ou Newey-West. Inicialmente utilizaram-se dados com periodicidade mensal, mas os resultados não foram robustos. Por isso, foram usados dados com periodicidade trimestral, obtendo melhores resultados. Apenas as melhores regressões são apresentadas no texto, apresentando dois grupos de estimativas para os determinantes das taxas de juros e de câmbio, sendo o primeiro para o período de 1990 a 2006 sem risco de default e o segundo para o período em que há dados sobre risco de default (os melhores resultados incluindo a variável risco ocorreram para o período de 1995 a 2006). Essas regressões fundamentam a definição de quatro modelos VAR (Vetor Autorregressivo). Esta última, ao ser estimada usando a decomposição de Choleski, permite chegar a conclusões convergentes aos das regressões selecionadas. Tanto a análise de regressão quanto o VAR reforçam o papel das variáveis externas em afetar a taxa de juros CDI a partir de 1995, em detrimento das variáveis domésticas, especialmente a taxa de inflação. O modelo para a taxa de câmbio sinaliza para uma conclusão semelhante, sendo a variável CDI a mais importante quando considerado todo o período em análise, mas perdendo poder explicativo sobre a taxa de câmbio quando inserida a variável risco de default. Pode-se afirmar que a conta capital e financeira do Balanço de Pagamentos é semi-aberta e que os fatores externos possuem impactos expressivos sobre a taxa de juros CDI, principalmente após a implementação do Plano Real. Em especial, o risco de default percebido pelos investidores externos possui um papel importante em mostrar a seguinte dinâmica: sob maior risco de default, um aumento da taxa de juros (via política monetária restritiva) pode provocar um efeito perverso, pois ao invés de atrair capital externo (e, assim, poder cumprir com as obrigações financeiras), provoca uma saída de capital e desvaloriza a taxa de câmbio, aumentando a inflação. Esses resultados são de extrema importância para o exercício da política monetária, tal como exposto nas conclusões do trabalho. / During the last two decades, Brazil has been practicing high nominal interest rates, comparing to the observed inflation rate. This fact has a negative impact on credit, increases public debt and reduces the economic growth. In addition, the implementation of economic policies that aim to decrease the inflation rate, together with the economic globalization process, generate a set of variables that are related to the interest rate and, also, explicitly show how important is to analyze the main variables that have impacts on the interest rate determination and its relation with the exchange rate, which are the aim of this dissertation. Theoretical models for interest rate and exchange rate determination for a small and partially open economy were expanded to incorporate not only a suitable Fisher equation to the Brazilian economy, but also the default risk, and they were estimated in the following sequence: 1) Dickey-Pantula, Dickey-Fuller and seasonal unit root tests, and also unit root test with structural changes, were used to verify the integration degree for each variable and how each of them should be considered in the models; 2) interest rate and exchange rate regressions were first estimated by Ordinary Least Squares or, in case of heteroskedasticity and residuals autocorrelations problems, the regressions were reestimated using Weighted Least Squares, Weighted Least Squares with non-linear correction for residuals autocorrelation or Weighted Least Squares with Newey-West or White consistent covariance estimates. Initially, the models were estimated using monthly aggregated data, but they did not present robust results. In sequence, models were estimated using quarterly aggregated data, which had better estimations results and the best results are presented in this thesis. This dissertation presents two groups of results for each determination model of interest and exchange rates, considering the period from 1990 to 2006 without default risk and starting from a year that are default risk data available (the best results including default risk variable happened from 1995 to 2006). These regressions are the base for four VAR (Vector Autoregression) models. Both regression and VAR analysis strengthen the role of external variables in affecting the CDI interest rate for the period starting from 1995, while domestic variables reduced their effect on this process, specially the inflation rate. The results for the exchange rate determination model indicate a similar conclusion because, for the whole period analyzed, CDI interest rate was the most important variable; however, it reduced its influence on exchange rate when the default risk was inserted into the estimations. According to the results, there is evidence that the Brazilian economy is partially open and that the external factors have strong effect on CDI interest rate determination, especially after the implementation of Plano Real (Real Plan). More importantly, the international investors\' default risk perception has an important role showing the following dynamic: under default risk conditions, a larger interest rate (by a restricted monetary policy) can have a perverse effect, because, higher interest rate instead of attracting external capital inflows (which permits financial obligations to be honored) can lead on an external capital outflows, which depreciates the exchange rate and, as a result, increases the inflation rate. These results are extremely important to be considered for monetary policy implementation, as shown on the conclusions of this thesis.

Nas duas últimas décadas, o Brasil vem praticando elevadas taxas de juros nominais em relação à taxa de inflação existente. Isso encarece o crédito, aumenta o endividamento e prejudica o crescimento econômico sustentado. Além disso, fatores como a implementação de políticas econômicas de combate à inflação, a aceleração do processo de abertura e internacionalização econômicas criam um mix variáveis que se relacionam com a taxa de juros e deixam explícita a necessidade de se analisar os principais determinantes da taxa de juros nominal no Brasil e sua relação com a taxa de câmbio, objetos de estudos do presente trabalho. O modelo teórico apresentado, expandido para incluir uma equação de Fisher adequada à economia brasileira e o risco de default, foi estimado seguindo os seguintes passos: 1) testes de raiz unitária de Dickey-Pantula, Dickey-Fuller, raiz unitária sazonal e raiz unitária com quebra estrutural foram realizados de modo a saber o grau de integração de cada variável e, assim, como cada uma deve ser considerada nos modelos; 2) regressões para taxa de juros e taxa de câmbio foram, inicialmente, estimadas pelo método de Mínimos Quadrados Ordinários e, caso tenham sido constatados problemas de heteroscedasticidade e autocorrelação dos resíduos, as regressões foram reestimadas pelo método dos Mínimos Quadrados Ponderados, Mínimos Quadrados Ponderados com modelo não-linear de correção da autocorrelação dos resíduos e/ou Mínimos Quadrados Ponderados com estimativas consistentes da variância de White ou Newey-West. Inicialmente utilizaram-se dados com periodicidade mensal, mas os resultados não foram robustos. Por isso, foram usados dados com periodicidade trimestral, obtendo melhores resultados. Apenas as melhores regressões são apresentadas no texto, apresentando dois grupos de estimativas para os determinantes das taxas de juros e de câmbio, sendo o primeiro para o período de 1990 a 2006 sem risco de default e o segundo para o período em que há dados sobre risco de default (os melhores resultados incluindo a variável risco ocorreram para o período de 1995 a 2006). Essas regressões fundamentam a definição de quatro modelos VAR (Vetor Autorregressivo). Esta última, ao ser estimada usando a decomposição de Choleski, permite chegar a conclusões convergentes aos das regressões selecionadas. Tanto a análise de regressão quanto o VAR reforçam o papel das variáveis externas em afetar a taxa de juros CDI a partir de 1995, em detrimento das variáveis domésticas, especialmente a taxa de inflação. O modelo para a taxa de câmbio sinaliza para uma conclusão semelhante, sendo a variável CDI a mais importante quando considerado todo o período em análise, mas perdendo poder explicativo sobre a taxa de câmbio quando inserida a variável risco de default. Pode-se afirmar que a conta capital e financeira do Balanço de Pagamentos é semi-aberta e que os fatores externos possuem impactos expressivos sobre a taxa de juros CDI, principalmente após a implementação do Plano Real. Em especial, o risco de default percebido pelos investidores externos possui um papel importante em mostrar a seguinte dinâmica: sob maior risco de default, um aumento da taxa de juros (via política monetária restritiva) pode provocar um efeito perverso, pois ao invés de atrair capital externo (e, assim, poder cumprir com as obrigações financeiras), provoca uma saída de capital e desvaloriza a taxa de câmbio, aumentando a inflação. Esses resultados são de extrema importância para o exercício da política monetária, tal como exposto nas conclusões do trabalho. / During the last two decades, Brazil has been practicing high nominal interest rates, comparing to the observed inflation rate. This fact has a negative impact on credit, increases public debt and reduces the economic growth. In addition, the implementation of economic policies that aim to decrease the inflation rate, together with the economic globalization process, generate a set of variables that are related to the interest rate and, also, explicitly show how important is to analyze the main variables that have impacts on the interest rate determination and its relation with the exchange rate, which are the aim of this dissertation. Theoretical models for interest rate and exchange rate determination for a small and partially open economy were expanded to incorporate not only a suitable Fisher equation to the Brazilian economy, but also the default risk, and they were estimated in the following sequence: 1) Dickey-Pantula, Dickey-Fuller and seasonal unit root tests, and also unit root test with structural changes, were used to verify the integration degree for each variable and how each of them should be considered in the models; 2) interest rate and exchange rate regressions were first estimated by Ordinary Least Squares or, in case of heteroskedasticity and residuals autocorrelations problems, the regressions were reestimated using Weighted Least Squares, Weighted Least Squares with non-linear correction for residuals autocorrelation or Weighted Least Squares with Newey-West or White consistent covariance estimates. Initially, the models were estimated using monthly aggregated data, but they did not present robust results. In sequence, models were estimated using quarterly aggregated data, which had better estimations results and the best results are presented in this thesis. This dissertation presents two groups of results for each determination model of interest and exchange rates, considering the period from 1990 to 2006 without default risk and starting from a year that are default risk data available (the best results including default risk variable happened from 1995 to 2006). These regressions are the base for four VAR (Vector Autoregression) models. Both regression and VAR analysis strengthen the role of external variables in affecting the CDI interest rate for the period starting from 1995, while domestic variables reduced their effect on this process, specially the inflation rate. The results for the exchange rate determination model indicate a similar conclusion because, for the whole period analyzed, CDI interest rate was the most important variable; however, it reduced its influence on exchange rate when the default risk was inserted into the estimations. According to the results, there is evidence that the Brazilian economy is partially open and that the external factors have strong effect on CDI interest rate determination, especially after the implementation of Plano Real (Real Plan). More importantly, the international investors\' default risk perception has an important role showing the following dynamic: under default risk conditions, a larger interest rate (by a restricted monetary policy) can have a perverse effect, because, higher interest rate instead of attracting external capital inflows (which permits financial obligations to be honored) can lead on an external capital outflows, which depreciates the exchange rate and, as a result, increases the inflation rate. These results are extremely important to be considered for monetary policy implementation, as shown on the conclusions of this thesis.

Yes / This paper examines how deviation from firms’ target leverage influences their decisions on undertaking foreign acquisitions. Using a sample of 5746 completed bids by UK acquirers from 1987 to 2012, we observe that over-deviated firms are more likely to acquire foreign targets. Consistent with co-insurance theory, we find that over-deviated firms engage in foreign acquisition deals to relieve their financial constraints and to mitigate their financial distress risk. We also note that foreign acquisitions enhance over-deviated firms’ value and performance, measured by Tobin’s q and return on assets (ROA) respectively. These findings support the view that over-deviated firms pursue the most value-enhancing acquisitions. Overall, this paper suggests that co-insurance effects, value creation and performance improvements are the main incentives for over-deviated firms’ involvement in foreign acquisitions. / Financial support of Zagazig University in Egypt / The full-text of this article will be released for public view at the end of the publisher embargo on 02 Mar 2019.

Despite the recognized importance of the bond rating industry, little academic work has been done to investigate the determinants of the standards these firms employ to assign credit ratings to individual firms. There is an ongoing debate in the literature arguing whether the decline in the percentage of highly rated firms is because rating standards have become more stringent over time or whether the credit quality of firms in the economy has declined. We investigate this question in this dissertation. Our first contribution is to address several empirical problems in prior literature. This study uses a combination of structural models of default and econometric model of ratings to study the determinants of rating standards and, by doing so, overcome the earlier methodological shortcomings. Our second contribution is to test new theory which hypothesizes that the standards of a rating agency are conditional upon the distribution of default risk in the economy at the time. The results are robust no matter which structural models of default we employ. The evidence suggests the standards are relative to the default risk distribution and there has been a secular increase in the stringency in the assignment of ratings over time. A third way we extend the literature is by examining the accuracy of the assignment of ratings. Theoretical models suggest rating agencies have incentives to purposefully add noise to the assignment of ratings. We conduct an empirical analysis of the classification errors using receiver operating characteristic analysis. The results suggest that error rates have decreased at the extreme ends of the rating spectrum (AAA vs. AA and below; B and below vs. BB and above) over time while it has increased in the middle rating categories. This error rate is directly related to the distribution of default risk across firms at any point in time. These findings not only strengthen our result that standards are relative and time varying, but also suggest there is more noise in the assignment of ratings at exactly the time when there is more uncertainty regarding the credit risk of firms in the economy – i.e., during a credit crisis.

In order to reduce default risk, financial institutions have been investigating into credit ratings of companies, which they want to give credit to. This research tries to give a method for financial institutions to differentiate between default and normal company with financial ratios, which is already announced in their seasonal financial reports. The samples are abstracted from security markets, and restricted to building companies. With Discriminant analysis and Logistic regression models, financial institutions can estimate what company may become into default situation and others stay in good condition. According to this research, financial ratios that can be used to discriminate between default and normal companies are: net worth ratio and short-turn borrowing/liquid asset and asset turnover and gross profit margin. It can also be described with asset turnover and gross profit margin if default risk is been estimated.