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Maximum likelihood estimation of first-passage structural credit risk models correcting for the survivorship bias

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  • Amaya, Diego
  • Boudreault, Mathieu
  • McLeish, Don L.

Abstract

The survivorship bias in credit risk modeling is the bias that results in parameter estimates when the survival of a company is ignored. We study the statistical properties of the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) accounting for survivorship bias for models based on the first-passage of the geometric Brownian motion. We find that if we neglect the survivorship bias, then the drift has a positive bias that may not disappear asymptotically. We show that correcting the survivorship bias by conditioning on survival in the likelihood function underestimates the drift. Therefore, we propose a bias correction method for non-iid samples that is first-order unbiased and second-order efficient. The economic impact of neglecting or miscorrecting for the survivorship bias is studied empirically based on a sample of more than 13,000 companies over the period 1980 through 2016 inclusive. Our results point to the important risk of misclassifying a company as solvent or insolvent due to biases in the estimates.

Suggested Citation

  • Amaya, Diego & Boudreault, Mathieu & McLeish, Don L., 2019. "Maximum likelihood estimation of first-passage structural credit risk models correcting for the survivorship bias," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 297-313.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:dyncon:v:100:y:2019:i:c:p:297-313
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jedc.2018.11.005
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Survival bias; Geometric Brownian motion; Conditional estimation; Default probability; Inference; Diffusion processes;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C01 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - General - - - Econometrics
    • C13 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Estimation: General
    • C18 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Methodolical Issues: General
    • C51 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Model Construction and Estimation
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates

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