Corporate Bond Returns and Volatility

Abstract:     
Recent literature emphasizes the relation of stock volatility to corporate bond yields. We demonstrate that during 1996-2005 corporate bond excess return volatility is directly related to contemporaneous corporate bond excess returns. In fact, the decompositions of aggregate bond volatility have a higher contemporaneous correlation with bond yields in comparison to idiosyncratic stock risk. Additionally, bond volatility and idiosyncratic risk are significant predictors of corporate three-month and six-month ahead bond excess returns. We also find that corporate bond volatility contains both slow moving and time-varying components.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 26

Accepted Paper Series