Throughout the last century there has been an extensve discussion regarding the optimal capital structure.Excessive research has further been conducted to understand the relationbetween the market debt and equity on an aggregated market-level. However, it is observed that the research on thefirm-specific co-movement of stock and bondsis scarce. Since the last financial crisis,the bond market has especiallyseen a rapid growth. The growthstemsfrom the low interest rate climate togetherwithmore restrictive lending policies from banks. Based on this discussion the purpose of this research is to investigate if Swedish corporationsare making the optimal capital structure decision. This based on a potential co-movement of stocks and bonds. To answer the purpose the research question was therefore: What is therelationship between a corporation’s bond returnand stock return?The scientific method that was used in this research is a quantitative method witha deductive process and a positivistic angle. Because the research uses the whole population that is available, this is a censusstudy. In the population companies that have been active on the stock and the bond market sometime during the period from 2008 to 2018. Although, companies that have been delisted during this period have been excluded. From a population of 75 companies and 1972 observations, two regressions were made due to the inconclusive results regarding the dependency of stock return and bond return. No significant result between the returns was found. However, a significant result between marketcapitalizationand the returns togheter with stock standard deviation and the returns was found. Based on the result, the authors could conclude that there seems to be a demand for the issuance of both stocks and bonds. This follows a discussion regarding the possibility of diversification of the securities based on the modern portfolio theory. Further, the authors can conclude that the theories regardin the irrelevance of capital structure are applicable. Finally,the authors can conclude that the stakeholder theory can explain the value creation in a more appropriate fashion in relation to the result. The authors canthereforeconclude that the debt-equity dilemma still is present and further research within the area is required.

Prior research on covenants show that they are frequently included in corporate debt agreements as means of mitigating bondholder-stockholder conflicts. As covenants should be more frequently included when there is a higher degree of bondholder-stockholder conflict, what is then the relation between covenants and spread? Our results show that on the Norwegian corporate debt market, bonds that include covenants have a higher spread than those that do not. The results of an OLS-regression using some of the most common covenants, Z’-score and bond spread shows that the 43 % of bond spread can be explained by whether the bond includes dividend restrictions, equity restrictions and poison puts, and the Z’-score of the issuer.

Research concerning covenants has at large not examined what quantifiable relationship covenants have with yield spreads. We shed light on this topic as we evaluate Swedish bond indentures. By examining the relationship between covenants and yield spread, our results indicate whether covenants effectively mitigate the bondholder-stockholder conflict. The results from our OLS-model indicate that the poison put option and covenants restricting dividends and mergers have a positive relationship with the yield spread, and that the negative pledge has a negative relationship with the yield spread. Furthermore, our results indicate that some covenants are too costly for companies issuing investment grade bonds. Those covenants are therefore only included in bonds with higher yield spreads, where a conflict between bondholders and stockholders could be greater. / Ett kvantifierbart förhållande mellan kovenanter och räntebasmarginalen har överlag i tidigare forskning inte undersökts. I denna uppsats åskådliggör vi detta förhållande genom att undersöka svenska företagsobligationer. Genom att studera relationen mellan kovenanter och räntebasmarginalen kan våra resultat visa på huruvida kovenanter motverkar konflikten mellan obligationsinnehavare och aktieägare. Resultaten från vår OLS-modell visar att poison put option och kovenanter som begränsar utdelningar och fusioner har ett positivt samband med räntebasmarginalen, medan negative pledge har ett negativt samband med räntebasmarginalen. Vidare visar våra resultat att vissa kovenanter är för dyra för företag som ger ut investment grade obligationer. Dessa kovenanter finns därför bara med i obligationer med högre räntebasmarginaler, där en konflikt mellan obligationsinnehavare och aktieägare kan vara större.

本研究旨在檢視債券市場有無從眾行為產生的現象，並進一步探討其可能產生從眾現象的原因。首先，嘗試將財務工程，在滿足平睹過程下所計算出來債券應有的真實價格，並利用Keynes選美競爭的概念作結合。一般的債券市場存在著兩種交易者，一為同時擁有私人訊息和公開市場資訊的交易者，另一為只具有公開市場資訊的交易者，在資訊不對稱的條件下，兩種交易者的交易策略皆是利用有條件下的理性預期去估算債券的市場價格，然而發現到債券的市場價格會受到本身的真實價格、公開市場資訊和債券的供給衝擊等因素所影響。 最後，由研究模型發現，會不會導致債券市場存在從眾行為的最主要因素，就是債券交易者所擁有的利率行為方程式，藉由利率方程式選取的外生變數，比較會影響債券市場價格因素的權重大小，加以判斷會產生從眾行為的條件。 / The objective of this study is to examine the bond market, the phenomenon of herd behavior, and to further explore the possible reasons for the phenomenon of conformity. First, try to combine competitive advantage of Keynes’s concept of beauty contests and the real bond price which satisfies martingale process Bond market in general there are two kinds of traders, one has both public information and private information, the other has only public information. Under conditions of asymmetric information, two kinds of traders’ trading strategies are the use of rational expectations under conditions to estimate the bond’s market price. However, we can find that there are some factors which affect the bond’s market price. Like bond’s true value, public information and supply shock. Finally, the model is found by the study will not lead to herd behavior bond market the most important factor is the interest rate behavior equation owned by traders. We select the exogenous variables which to compare their weight in order to determine the conditions of herd behavior.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business, December 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

The access to adequate housing is a constitutional right, in terms of Section 26 (1) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Act 108 of 1996. Access to housing in South Africa is still an ideal and not a reality. The increase in housing prices reduces affordability, which creates a barrier to the housing market for South Africans to fully participate. The South African housing market is divided, based on the affordability of households, with a gap within the property market. The gap-housing market is a market, which does not receive a government subsidy; and furthermore, it does not qualify for bond finance by the private financial institutions. The gap-housing market includes households that earn between R3,500 to R15,000 per month for residential properties valued between R116,703 to R483,481. The problem is a lack of supply in the gap-housing market to meet the demand; and this is also affected by the poor performance of the subsidy-housing market. The gap-housing market is not traded adequately, due to a lack of supply caused by stricter lending criteria from the banks. The study was conducted by means of reviewing the related literature and by an empirical study. A survey was conducted using the quantitative approach through a distribution of research questionnaires to different organizations within the judgement sample population. The objective of the study is to review the gap-housing market and to make recommendations. The descriptive survey was conducted among specialists that are participating in the South African housing market. The findings of the study suggest that there is a relationship between incentive and participation, as well as a relationship between participation – with access, supply and trading in the gap-housing market. This study will contribute to the South African housing market body of knowledge – by addressing the problem of a gap within the housing market.

This study looks at the development of bond markets in emerging economies and focuses on the development of the Bond Exchange of South Africa (BESA). It explores the history, structure, performance and key issues related to the development of this market within the broader context of domestic, regional and global bond market development. BESA's experience provides valuable lessons for other emerging market economies also seeking to build bond markets. The sophistication of the local bond market is not enough to make it appealing to foreign borrowers. Market development demands an enabling market infrastructure and a background of macroeconomic stability, diversified market participants, deregulation of capital flows and an appropriate regulatory and supervisory environment.

In the study the first part is focused on anylysing the U.S. corporate bond market especially its imporance and progress. Second part is devoted structured products which are integrated in the corporate bond market in USA. Last part is focused on historical yields and especially credit spreads of corporate bonds and the factors which influence them.

How are the prices of financial assets determined? In this dissertation, I test various theories empirically, focusing on several classes of bonds. In the first chapter, I test whether asset prices reflect the risk-exposures of financial intermediaries in a setting that is well suited to tackling concerns about omitted risk factors. I analyze catastrophe bonds whose cash flows are linked to the occurrence of natural disasters and find that 71% of the variation in their expected returns can be explained by a theoretically-motivated measure of financial intermediaries’ marginal rate of substitution. Assuming that natural disasters are independent of aggregate wealth, this pricing result is inconsistent with any explanation based on macroeconomic risk factors. However, the result is consistent with intermediary asset pricing models that suggest that financial intermediaries are marginal investors in capital markets. I also show that the premium on natural disaster risk has decreased significantly in recent years and has become less responsive to the occurrence of disasters, suggesting that intermediaries’ access to outside capital has improved over time. In the second chapter, which is coauthored with Robert J. Hodrick, we examine the statistical term structure model of Cochrane and Piazzesi (2005) and its affine counterpart, developed in Cochrane and Piazzesi (2008), in several out-of-sample analyzes. The model’s one-factor forecasting structure across bonds with two, three, four, and five years to maturity characterizes the term structures of additional major currencies in samples ending in 2003. In post-2003 data such one-factor structures again characterize each currency’s term structure, but we reject equality of the coefficients across the two samples. We derive currency return forecasting implications from the Cochrane and Piazzesi (2008) affine model showing that the term structure forecasting variables in each currency should predict cross-currency investments, but we find no support for these predictions in either pre-2004 or post-2003 data, whereas the interest differentials do predict currency returns. Here too, though, we find strong evidence of parameter instability as the parameter estimates on the interest differentials change sign. In recursive out-of-sample forecasts of excess rates of return on bonds in each currency, the Cochrane and Piazzesi (2008) term structure forecasting models fail to beat forecasts from the historical average excess rates of return. Graphical analysis indicates that the instability in the forecasting models’ parameters begins in the global financial crisis.

Efter finanskrisen 2008 blev bankerna mer restriktiva i sin utlåning till företag, vilket har resulterat i att företag söker alternativ finansiering via kapitalmarknaden. Utvecklingen kan härledas till implementeringen av den nya finansiella regleringen (Basel III). I den här uppsatsen analyserar jag den svenska marknaden för företagsobligationer. Jag undersöker vad som ligger bakom den kraftiga tillväxten samt hur marknaden kan komma att utvecklas framöver. Examensarbetet baseras på intervjuer med personer inom finanssektorn och tidigare forskning.På senare år har marknadsplatser såsom First North Bond Market och Räntetorget upprättats med syftet att göra marknaden mer tillgänglig för mindre företag. Till följd av detta har emissionsvolymen av företag med lägre kreditvärdighet eller utan officiellt kreditbetyg ökat. Dessutom har företagsobligationsmarknaden gynnats av historiskt låg realränta och en stark konjunktur. / Since the financial crisis 2008 banks have been more restrictive in their lendings to companies, leading to companies seeking alternatives funding through the capital markets.The development can be derived from the implementation of the new financial regulation (Basel III). In this paper, I analyze the Swedish corporate bond market. I investigate what is behind the strong growth and how the market may develop in the future. The thesis is based on interviews with people in the financial sector as well as previous reserach.In recent year, markets such as First North Bond Market and Räntetorget have been created with the aim of making the market more accessible to smaller companies. As a result, the volume of emissions of companies with lower credit ratings or without official credit ratings has increased. In addition, the corporate bond market has benefited from historically low real interest rates and a strong business cycle.