Corporate Bond Default Risk: A 150-Year Perspective

46 Pages Posted: 29 Mar 2010 Last revised: 22 Apr 2023

See all articles by Kay Giesecke

Kay Giesecke

Stanford University - Department of Management Science & Engineering

Francis A. Longstaff

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) - Finance Area

Stephen M. Schaefer

London Business School - Institute of Finance and Accounting

Ilya A. Strebulaev

Stanford University - Graduate School of Business; National Bureau of Economic Research

Date Written: March 2010

Abstract

We study corporate bond default rates using an extensive new data set spanning the 1866-2008 period. We find that the corporate bond market has repeatedly suffered clustered default events much worse than those experienced during the Great Depression. For example, during the railroad crisis of 1873-1875, total defaults amounted to 36 percent of the par value of the entire corporate bond market. We examine whether corporate default rates are best forecast by structural, reduced-form, or macroeconomic credit models and find that variables suggested by structural models outperform the others. Default events are only weakly correlated with business downturns. We find that over the long term, credit spreads are roughly twice as large as default losses, resulting in an average credit risk premium of about 80 basis points. We also find that credit spreads do not adjust in response to realized default rates.

Suggested Citation

Giesecke, Kay and Longstaff, Francis A. and Schaefer, Stephen M. and Strebulaev, Ilya A., Corporate Bond Default Risk: A 150-Year Perspective (March 2010). NBER Working Paper No. w15848, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1578685

Kay Giesecke (Contact Author)

Stanford University - Department of Management Science & Engineering ( email )

475 Via Ortega
Stanford, CA 94305
United States
(650) 723 9265 (Phone)
(650) 723 1614 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://https://giesecke.people.stanford.edu

Francis A. Longstaff

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) - Finance Area ( email )

Los Angeles, CA 90095-1481
United States
310-825-2218 (Phone)
310-206-5455 (Fax)

Stephen M. Schaefer

London Business School - Institute of Finance and Accounting ( email )

Sussex Place
Regent's Park
London NW1 4SA
United Kingdom
+44 171 706 6887 (Phone)
+44 171 724 3317 (Fax)

Ilya A. Strebulaev

Stanford University - Graduate School of Business ( email )

655 Knight Way
Stanford, CA 94305-5015
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/faculty/ilya-strebulaev

National Bureau of Economic Research ( email )

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

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