IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbfina/v73y2016icp67-83.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Credit derivatives as a commitment device: Evidence from the cost of corporate debt

Author

Listed:
  • Kim, Gi H.

Abstract

When a firm writes incomplete debt contracts, its limited ability to commit to not strategically default and renegotiate its debt requires the firm to pay higher yields to its creditors. Hedged by credit derivatives, creditors have stronger bargaining power in the case of debt renegotiation, which ex-ante demotivates the firm to default strategically. In this paper, I aim to investigate theoretically and empirically whether credit derivatives could help reduce the cost of debt contracting stemming from the possibility of strategic default. I find that firms with a priori high strategic default incentives experience a relatively large reduction in their corporate bond spreads after the introduction of credit default swaps (CDS) written on their debt. This result is robust to controlling for the endogeneity of CDS introduction. My finding is consistent with the presence of CDS reducing the strategic default-related cost of corporate debt, suggesting the beneficial role of credit derivatives as a commitment device for the borrower to repay the lender.

Suggested Citation

  • Kim, Gi H., 2016. "Credit derivatives as a commitment device: Evidence from the cost of corporate debt," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 67-83.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:73:y:2016:i:c:p:67-83
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbankfin.2016.08.007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378426616301467
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2016.08.007?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Giovanni Favara & Enrique Schroth & Philip Valta, 2012. "Strategic Default and Equity Risk Across Countries," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(6), pages 2051-2095, December.
    2. Harrison Hong & Terence Lim & Jeremy C. Stein, 2000. "Bad News Travels Slowly: Size, Analyst Coverage, and the Profitability of Momentum Strategies," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(1), pages 265-295, February.
    3. Arping, Stefan, 2014. "Credit protection and lending relationships," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 10(C), pages 7-19.
    4. Oliver Hart & John Moore, 1998. "Default and Renegotiation: A Dynamic Model of Debt," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 113(1), pages 1-41.
    5. Arturo Bris & Ivo Welch & Ning Zhu, 2006. "The Costs of Bankruptcy: Chapter 7 Liquidation versus Chapter 11 Reorganization," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(3), pages 1253-1303, June.
    6. Heitor Almeida & Murillo Campello, 2007. "Financial Constraints, Asset Tangibility, and Corporate Investment," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 20(5), pages 1429-1460, 2007 12.
    7. Ismailescu, Iuliana & Phillips, Blake, 2015. "Credit default swaps and the market for sovereign debt," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 43-61.
    8. Oehmke, Martin & Zawadowski, Adam, 2015. "Synthetic or real? The equilibrium effects of credit default swaps on bond markets," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 84511, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. Norden, Lars & Wagner, Wolf, 2008. "Credit derivatives and loan pricing," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(12), pages 2560-2569, December.
    10. Fan, Hua & Sundaresan, Suresh M, 2000. "Debt Valuation, Renegotiation, and Optimal Dividend Policy," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 13(4), pages 1057-1099.
    11. Mascia Bedendo & Lara Cathcart & Lina El‐Jahel, 2016. "Distressed Debt Restructuring in the Presence of Credit Default Swaps," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 48(1), pages 165-201, February.
    12. Avinash K. Dixit & Robert S. Pindyck, 1994. "Investment under Uncertainty," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 5474.
    13. Berger, Philip G. & Ofek, Eli & Swary, Itzhak, 1996. "Investor valuation of the abandonment option," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 257-287, October.
    14. Bolton, Patrick & Scharfstein, David S, 1996. "Optimal Debt Structure and the Number of Creditors," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(1), pages 1-25, February.
    15. Ashcraft, Adam B. & Santos, João A.C., 2009. "Has the CDS market lowered the cost of corporate debt?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(4), pages 514-523, May.
    16. Gertner, Robert & Scharfstein, David, 1991. "A Theory of Workouts and the Effects of Reorganization Law," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(4), pages 1189-1222, September.
    17. Das, Sanjiv & Kalimipalli, Madhu & Nayak, Subhankar, 2014. "Did CDS trading improve the market for corporate bonds?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(2), pages 495-525.
    18. Oliver Hart & John Moore, 1994. "A Theory of Debt Based on the Inalienability of Human Capital," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(4), pages 841-879.
    19. Zhang, Andrew Jianzhong, 2012. "Distress risk premia in expected stock and bond returns," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 225-238.
    20. Patrick Bolton & Martin Oehmke, 2011. "Credit Default Swaps and the Empty Creditor Problem," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(8), pages 2617-2655.
    21. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:1:p:447-471 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Oehmke, Martin & Zawadowski, Adam, 2016. "The anatomy of the CDS market," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118964, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    23. Xin Chang & Sudipto Dasgupta & Gilles Hilary, 2006. "Analyst Coverage and Financing Decisions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(6), pages 3009-3048, December.
    24. Bolton, Patrick & Scharfstein, David S, 1990. "A Theory of Predation Based on Agency Problems in Financial Contracting," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(1), pages 93-106, March.
    25. Nejadmalayeri, Ali & Singh, Manohar, 2012. "Corporate taxes, strategic default, and the cost of debt," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 2900-2916.
    26. Henry T. C. Hu & Bernard Black, 2008. "Debt, Equity and Hybrid Decoupling: Governance and Systemic Risk Implications," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 14(4), pages 663-709, September.
    27. Campello, Murillo & Matta, Rafael, 2020. "Investment risk, CDS insurance, and firm financing," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    28. Francis, J & Soffer, L, 1997. "The relative informativeness of analysts' stock recommendations and earnings forecast revisions," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(2), pages 193-211.
    29. Sergei A. Davydenko & Ilya A. Strebulaev, 2007. "Strategic Actions and Credit Spreads: An Empirical Investigation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(6), pages 2633-2671, December.
    30. Betker, Brian L, 1995. "Management's Incentives, Equity's Bargaining Power, and Deviations from Absolute Priority in Chapter 11 Bankruptcies," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 68(2), pages 161-183, April.
    31. Shim, Ilhyock & Zhu, Haibin, 2014. "The impact of CDS trading on the bond market: Evidence from Asia," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 460-475.
    32. Bhushan, Ravi, 1989. "Firm characteristics and analyst following," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(2-3), pages 255-274, July.
    33. Valta, Philip, 2016. "Strategic Default, Debt Structure, and Stock Returns," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 51(1), pages 197-229, February.
    34. Marti G. Subrahmanyam & Dragon Yongjun Tang & Sarah Qian Wang, 2014. "Does the Tail Wag the Dog?: The Effect of Credit Default Swaps on Credit Risk," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 27(10), pages 2927-2960.
    35. Lorenzo Garlappi & Tao Shu & Hong Yan, 2008. "Default Risk, Shareholder Advantage, and Stock Returns," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(6), pages 2743-2778, November.
    36. Martin Oehmke & Adam Zawadowski, 2015. "Synthetic or Real? The Equilibrium Effects of Credit Default Swaps on Bond Markets," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 28(12), pages 3303-3337.
    37. Gilson, Stuart C. & John, Kose & Lang, Larry H. P., 1990. "Troubled debt restructurings*1: An empirical study of private reorganization of firms in default," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 315-353, October.
    38. Alessio Saretto & Heather E. Tookes, 2013. "Corporate Leverage, Debt Maturity, and Credit Supply: The Role of Credit Default Swaps," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 26(5), pages 1190-1247.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Colonnello, Stefano & Efing, Matthias & Zucchi, Francesca, 2019. "Shareholder bargaining power and the emergence of empty creditors," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(2), pages 297-317.
    2. Caglio, Cecilia & Darst, R. Matthew & Parolin, Eric, 2019. "Half-full or half-empty? Financial institutions, CDS use, and corporate credit risk," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    3. Rajesh Narayanan & Cihan Uzmanoglu, 2018. "Credit Insurance, Distress Resolution Costs, and Bond Spreads," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 47(4), pages 931-951, December.
    4. amri amamou, souhir & hellara, slaheddine, 2021. "The dynamic relationship between the sovereign CDS market and the Eurozone sovereign bond market (classified by maturity): Contagion or Spillovers?," MPRA Paper 109038, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. A. Hong, Hyun & Lobo, Gerald J. & Ryou, Ji Woo, 2019. "Financial market development and firm investment in tax avoidance: Evidence from credit default swap market," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 1-1.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rajesh Narayanan & Cihan Uzmanoglu, 2018. "Credit Insurance, Distress Resolution Costs, and Bond Spreads," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 47(4), pages 931-951, December.
    2. Augustin, Patrick & Subrahmanyam, Marti G. & Tang, Dragon Yongjun & Wang, Sarah Qian, 2014. "Credit Default Swaps: A Survey," Foundations and Trends(R) in Finance, now publishers, vol. 9(1-2), pages 1-196, December.
    3. Hwang Hee Lee & Frederick Dongchuhl Oh, 2022. "The role of credit default swaps in determining corporate payout policy," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 51(2), pages 635-661, June.
    4. Caglio, Cecilia & Darst, R. Matthew & Parolin, Eric, 2019. "Half-full or half-empty? Financial institutions, CDS use, and corporate credit risk," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    5. Campello, Murillo & Matta, Rafael, 2020. "Investment risk, CDS insurance, and firm financing," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    6. Osano, Hiroshi, 2020. "Credit default swaps and market information," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    7. András Danis, 2017. "Do Empty Creditors Matter? Evidence from Distressed Exchange Offers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(5), pages 1285-1301, May.
    8. Czech, Robert, 2021. "Credit default swaps and corporate bond trading," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    9. Colonnello, Stefano & Efing, Matthias & Zucchi, Francesca, 2019. "Shareholder bargaining power and the emergence of empty creditors," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(2), pages 297-317.
    10. Narayanan, Rajesh & Uzmanoglu, Cihan, 2018. "How do firms respond to empty creditor holdout in distressed exchanges?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 251-266.
    11. Söhnke M Bartram & Jennifer Conrad & Jongsub Lee & Marti G Subrahmanyam, 2022. "Credit Default Swaps around the World," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 35(5), pages 2464-2524.
    12. Subrahmanyam, Marti G. & Tang, Dragon Yongjun & Wang, Sarah Qian, 2017. "Credit default swaps, exacting creditors and corporate liquidity management," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(2), pages 395-414.
    13. Marti G. Subrahmanyam & Dragon Yongjun Tang & Sarah Qian Wang, 2016. "Credit Default Swaps, Exacting Creditors and Corporate Liquidity Management," Working Papers 202016, Hong Kong Institute for Monetary Research.
    14. Alexander W. Butler & Xiang Gao & Cihan Uzmanoglu, 2021. "Financial Innovation and Financial Intermediation: Evidence from Credit Default Swaps," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(5), pages 3150-3173, May.
    15. Zacharias Sautner & Vladimir Vladimirov, 2018. "Indirect Costs of Financial Distress and Bankruptcy Law: Evidence from Trade Credit and Sales [Bankruptcy codes and innovations]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 22(5), pages 1667-1704.
    16. A. Hong, Hyun & Lobo, Gerald J. & Ryou, Ji Woo, 2019. "Financial market development and firm investment in tax avoidance: Evidence from credit default swap market," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 1-1.
    17. Mascia Bedendo & Lara Cathcart & Lina El‐Jahel, 2016. "Distressed Debt Restructuring in the Presence of Credit Default Swaps," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 48(1), pages 165-201, February.
    18. Oehmke, Martin & Zawadowski, Adam, 2015. "Synthetic or real? The equilibrium effects of credit default swaps on bond markets," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 84511, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    19. Arping, Stefan, 2014. "Credit protection and lending relationships," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 10(C), pages 7-19.
    20. Tak-Yuen Wong & Jin Yu, 2022. "Credit Default Swaps and Debt Overhang," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(3), pages 2069-2097, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Credit default swaps; Empty creditors; Cost of corporate debt; Corporate bond yields;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G10 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • G13 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Contingent Pricing; Futures Pricing
    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
    • G33 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Bankruptcy; Liquidation

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:73:y:2016:i:c:p:67-83. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbf .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.