Author: Robin Greenwood and Samuel G. Hanson
ABSTRACT:We show that the credit quality of corporate debt issuers deteriorates during credit booms, and that this deterioration forecasts low excess returns to corporate bondholders. The key insight is that changesin the pricing of credit risk disproportionately affect the financing costs faced by low quality firms,so the debt issuance of low quality firms is particularly useful for forecasting bond returns. We show that a significant decline in issuer quality is a more reliable signal of credit market overheating than rapid aggregate credit growth. We use these findings to investigate the forces driving time-variation in expected corporate bond returns.
Robin Greenwood
Harvard Business School
Baker Library 267
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
and NBER
rgreenwood@hbs.edu
Samuel G. Hanson
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field Road
Boston, MA 02163
shanson@hbs.edu
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